Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will place in the Library copies of all departmental documents relating to the lifting of EU sanctions from Suleiman Marouf in August 2013.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

All decisions to designate and lift EU listings are made by the EU Council. The underlying evidence to support a designation or propose a delisting is made available to the Council and held on file.

The Council decides collectively on the sharing of information externally. Member States are bound by a duty of professional secrecy with respect to Council documents unless they have been made publicly available, as set out in the Council’s Rules of Procedure. In this case, they have not been made public.

Professional secrecy maintains non-disclosure of the identity of the proposing Member State and limits the scope for third countries to play divide and rule with the EU’s sanctions policy.