I have one observation that goes back to the point I made earlier about the different purposes of sanctions. In my opinion, all sanctions send a normative signal of one sort or another. That signal is not always very clearly articulated, and so there are often times when we find that the message is not adequately communicated simply by an administrative action or even the passage of a new resolution. One needs to have a combination of not only a signal being sent, but also a communications strategy with that signal. If you wish it to be effective in sending a signal, you need to do more than simply add someone to the list or take someone off the list. You need to combine this with a communications strategy that makes clear why the measure is being applied. Otherwise, the effectiveness of the signal is reduced. People might not notice the significance of how another country has added this person to their list. In fact, it needs to be part of a larger political communications strategy.
I can assure you, this is a serious problem within the European Union. When the RELEX group meets in Brussels on a weekly basis, adding two names or taking two names off the list, without any communications strategy, it's quite ineffective.
On the same theme, I was recently in Russia, talking with people about the sanctions. It's a perfect illustration of that failure. Although I think the sanctions being applied on Russia, at least from our analysis.... I think Canada was first, even ahead of the U.S. and Europe, in applying restrictive measures on Russian individuals over Ukraine. If the message isn't clearly communicated, it's not going to have an effect. A good example of the ineffectiveness of the signal at the moment is the fact that, apparently, most of the Russian public believes Russia's countermeasures against Europe on agricultural products are actually additional European measures against Russia. Here's an illustration of having the measures but not controlling the communications. Now, I'm not saying it's easy to control the communications in Russia today, but it's nonetheless a clear example of the disconnection between the normative, symbolic act and the communication of that act. It's something to think about if you want to use sanctions.
Later on I want to come back to the chair's query about costs on Bern, because there may be some guidelines from the European side.