It is being reported (here and here) that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has conducted a raid on the premises of Bulgartransgaz in Bulgaria.
The investigation is said to concern whether natural gas supplied via the Turkish company Botas may include gas of Russian origin and be being done in circumvention of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
This would be the first public and specific investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegation of sanctions breaches.
With the recent news that Finland has increased the number of its ongoing investigations, Europe (meaning the EU, the UK, Switzerland, etc) has reached the milestone of over 2,000 ongoing and public sanctions enforcement investigations being undertaken by regulators and prosecutors.
No doubt there are other investigations which are ongoing in the countries shown on the graph, and no doubt there are investigations ongoing in countries not shown and which remain confidential.
How many of these will be dropped due to inconclusive evidence or exculpatory evidence, and how many will lead to a conviction or fine or acquittal is impossible to say.
It is, without question, an unprecedented level of enforcement.
The Bulgarian authorities have charged five individuals on suspicion of exporting military goods to Russia valued at more than €2 million in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The goods are said to be optical sights, binoculars, aeronautical radio communication systems, ballistic calculators and software.
In total 12 people were arrested, but so far only 5 have been charged.
