Judgment_paragraph 45 · Andriy Portnov v Council of the European Union (T-290/14)

45Furthermore, as regards the Council’s assertions before the Court to the effect that the opening of an inquiry concerning the applicant was necessarily based on information acquired as a result of unspecified investigations conducted before that inquiry was opened, it must be pointed out that these are merely assumptions. In that regard, it should be noted that a decision on the adoption of restrictive measures as provided for in Article 29 TEU is not adopted in response to a request from the authorities of the non-member country concerned, but constitutes an autonomous measure adopted in pursuit of the Common Foreign and Security Policy objectives of the European Union. It is for the competent European Union authority to establish, in the event of challenge, that the reasons relied on against the person concerned are well-founded, and not the task of that person to adduce evidence of the negative, that those reasons are not well-founded (judgments of 18 July 2013 in Commission and Others v Kadi, C‑584/10 P, C‑593/10 P and C‑595/10 P, ECR, EU:C:2013:518, paragraphs 120 and 121, and of 28 November 2013, Council v Fulmen and Mahmoudian, C‑280/12 P, ECR, EU:C:2013:775, paragraphs 65 and 66).