Towards third countries, the EU applies sanctions as response to a target’s undesirable behavior, to limit its ability to pursue the objectionable policy and to enforce a rectification. Depending on the policy area of the misbehavior, the EU knows several forms of sanctions. In the area of the Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the official EU sanction-category of restrictive measures (e.g. trade, financial or diplomatic sanctions) applies. In other policy areas, as the Common Commercial Policy, Humanitarian aid or Development Policy, sanctions are imposed as well, but under different labels. Thus, a categorization of CFSP and non-CFSP sanctions is created, both by the EU and literature. Therefor the question arises: who is the European Union as sanction actor? What are its intentions, its institutional and legal basis, the grounding of its leverage and what forms of restrictive measures – both CFSP and non-CFSP – does it apply?
