The President of the United States Joe Biden has signed an executive order blocking all property and wealth of individuals that have been publicly designated by the Treasury Department as a threat to the stability of the Western Balkans.
Apart from blocking their wealth, the decree bars these individuals from entering US territory.
Pres. Biden has expanded the scope of EO 13219 (Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten Int’l Stabilization Efforts in W. Balkans) to include Albania. Note Sec.1(a)(ii), (v), (vi), and (vii). Countering corruption is a core US national security interest. https://t.co/aWtnVSmrxG
— Ambassador Yuri Kim (@USAmbAlbania) June 8, 2021
More specifically, the recent act is a revision of an order signed in 2001, that will now seek to include Albania, as initially it only encompassed the states of former Yugoslavia.
In the executive order signed by President Biden, the main highlights were:
Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:
(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or territorial integrity of any area or state in the Western Balkans;
(ii) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the Western Balkans;
(iii) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, a violation of, or an act that has obstructed or threatened the implementation of, any regional security, peace, cooperation, or mutual recognition agreement or framework or accountability mechanism related to the Western Balkans, including the Prespa Agreement of 2018; the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001; United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244; the Dayton Accords; or the Conclusions of the Peace Implementation Conference Council held in London in December 1995, including the decisions or conclusions of the High Representative, the Peace Implementation Council, or its Steering Board; or the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or, with respect to the former Yugoslavia, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals;
(iv) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse in the Western Balkans;
The decision comes only a few days after the Treasury Department declared several Bulgarian businessmen as “persona non-grata”, and right after the State Department publicly designated the former Albanian Prime Minister and his immediate family members.
