Question for written answer E-005578/2020 to the Council Rule 138 Julie Lechanteux (ID), Virginie Joron (ID), André Rougé (ID), Jean-Lin Lacapelle (ID), Maximilian Krah (ID), Gilles Lebreton (ID), Gunnar Beck (ID), Herve Juvin (ID), France Jamet (ID) Subject: Navalny case: additional sanctions against Russia On 7 October 2020, the German and French Ministers for Foreign Affairs announced their intention of proposing additional sanctions against Russia to their European partners, stating that 'there is no other plausible explanation' than Russia being responsible for the incident involving the politician Alexei Navalny1, which he himself has described as an attempted poisoning. This explanation harks back to the famous 'highly likely’ statement made in 2018 by the then British Prime Minister, Theresa May. Apparently, the two ministers did not need to wait for the findings of a judicial investigation to assign responsibility (naming defendants), establish guilt (delivering a verdict) and impose sanctions (handing down sentences), in a case that is still far from being definitively solved. Does the Council not take the view that such a decision violates Articles 48 and 51 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which state that 'everyone who has been charged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law’ and that 'the provisions of this Charter are addressed to the institutions and bodies of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and to the Member States only when they are implementing Union law'? Supporters2 1 https://agenceurope.eu/fr/bulletin/article/12576/39 2 This question is supported by Members other than the authors: Jean-Paul Garraud (ID), Thierry Mariani (ID) PE659.594v01-00.