Mr. Declan Smyth:

Sanctions are different. With sanctions, there are two steps involved. First, there must be a unanimous decision taken by the Council acting under Title V of the Treaty on European Union, which is the Common Foreign and Security Policy chapter of that treaty. Once a unanimous decision is taken under that to, for instance, interrupt trade relations with Russia or suspend certain trade activities with a particular country, the Council is then entitled to adopt a regulation without the involvement of Parliament by qualified majority voting, QMV. It can effectively only happen when there is unanimity within the Council on a particular issue,-----