A TOP EU court today threw out a bid by Venezuela to cancel damaging sanctions imposed by the bloc because of the deteriorating rights situation in the crisis-hit country.

The General Court of the EU, the bloc’s second highest tribunal, ruled that the attempt by lawyers for President Nicolas Maduro’s regime to annul EU sanctions – which ban EU-based companies from exporting certain goods there – was inadmissible.

The Luxembourg-based court said that because the sanctions do not target the Venezuelan state directly, the Caracas government’s case was inadmissible in law.

“At most, the contested provisions are likely to have indirect effects on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in so far as the prohibitions imposed… could have the effect of limiting the sources from which the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela can obtain the goods and services in question,” the three-judge panel said.

The EU brought in a raft of measures in November 2017 to ban the export of arms and equipment that could be used for repression, as political protests against Maduro grew.

Since then, individual travel bans and asset freezes have been imposed on 18 members of the Venezuelan regime, though the US has been pressing Europe to do more.

The court has yet to rule on challenges filed by 10 of these officials against these measures – including one by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. – AFP, September 20, 2019.