Open letter

We are asking for everyone who wants to support our fight for the right of free sailing to find in a list of Members of European Parliament persons from your country and send them this open letter. Feel free to add something from your heart.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen <>, dear Sir <>, 

Since June 24, 2024, some countries have banned the sailing ship Shtandart from entering their ports. This happened after the adoption of amendments to the 14th package of sanctions (Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745 of 24 June 2024), which now also affect “replicas of historical ships.”

What is happening is real torture of innocent people. Due to the ban on entry into ports, the ship’s international crew has no access to water and food. Sailing a historical ship without regular maintenance in port is life threatening. 

The Shtandart is, first of all, a huge community of people of different nationalities, mainly from the EU. I have known the ship’s crew for many years, they have always advocated peace.

As an EU citizen, I consider the situation around the Shtandart to be unfair, discriminatory and directed against ordinary people who were not involved in the war. The Shtandart was “punished” for the fact that it was built in Russia and once flew under the Russian flag. Such sanctions not only do not help fight the regime, but also negatively affect the image of the EU.

In addition, the owner of the ship is an EU citizen. The amendments violate the right of an EU citizen to use his property.

I also believe that the ban on the Shtandart in Europe violates my rights. Shtandart allowed me to learn seamanship / helped me find new friends / new projects / new work / inspiration / changed my outlook / something of my own.

More than 5,000 people have already signed a petition in support of the Shtandart demanding an exemption from sanctions and grant her free access to European ports.

Although I am not an expert in international law, I nevertheless see the following possibilities for rectifying the situation, for instance:

• Change in the paragraph (Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745 of 24 June 2024, Article 3ea, paragraph 3(a)) the word “including replicas of historical ships” to “excluding replicas of historical ships”. Since Shtandart is the only ship that meets this criterion, the change will not affect anyone else.
• Expand the list of exceptions (Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31 July 2014, Article 3ea, paragraph 2). The current law is that if a ship was under the Russian flag before 2022, it receives a “black mark” for the rest of its life, even despite the change of flag, registration and owner. It seems to me that if the ship’s management was not seen as collaborating with the regime, and the ship changed its flag and registration, this measure should not be applicable. Sanctions should work to destroy the regime, and not as a discriminatory measure that restricts the rights and freedoms of people.

I ask you to pay attention to this case of clear violation of human rights and give me an answer as to what further steps you plan to take to correct the current situation.

Links:

COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) 2024/1745  – https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1745/oj

COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No 833/2014 – https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014R0833

PETITION – https://www.change.org/p/help-preserve-the-piece-of-world-s-cultural-heritage-frigate-shtandart