Applying for an authorisation specified in the EU Sanctions Regulations

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs may grant a derogation from the prohibitions laid down in the Sanctions Regulations of the Council of the European Union in certain situations specified in the regulations.

As a rule, applications for authorisations are processed by the Unit for International Law of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. If the application is for an export authorisation falling under the competence of the Export Control Unit, the application is processed by the Export Control Unit of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Sanctions on Russia: The Unit for International Law will process applications for authorisations under the Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 and the Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 with the exception of derogations that fall under the competence of the Export Control Unit under Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014.

Apply for an authorisation by sending a freely worded application to the Sanctions Team of the Unit for International Law of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs by email to pakotteet.um@gov.fi.

The average processing time for authorization application  is 2-3 months. The time limits resulting from the sanctions regulations must be taken into account. It is necessary to reserve a sufficiently long time for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to process the application by the deadline.

You can even send an application for an authorisation on paper to the address:

Authorisations / OIK-10
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, PO Box 176
FI-00023 GOVERNMENT

The application must include the following information:

  • Name and contact details of the applicant:
  • Address to which inquiries and decisions may be sent
  • Consent or refusal of consent for sending a decision by email (section 19 of the Act on Electronic Services and Communication in the Public Sector)
  • Purpose of the application
  • Article under which the authorisation should be granted
  • Grounds under which the authorisation should be granted under this Article
  • Names of relevant parties (e.g., exporter and recipient of a product; bank in possession of the funds that should be released)

Please enclose to the application all relevant documents (e.g., sales contract, order confirmation, invoice or details of the paying bank) that show that the conditions for derogations specified in the Council Regulation are being met.

More instructions are available at https://um.fi/sanctions-checklist-for-exporters.