Diplomats say that the EU is about to reach an agreement on a new round of sanctions against Belarus – EURACTIV.com

Three EU diplomats said that the EU is about to impose more sanctions on Belarus, targeting about 30 individuals and entities, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Belavia, which will be approved as early as next week.

The European Union and NATO accused President Alexander Lukashenko of using immigrants as a weapon to put pressure on the West, sending people fleeing the Middle East to Minsk, and then to the border between Poland and the Baltic States.

The new round of sanctions will target Belarusian officials. The European Union said these officials organized the arrival of immigrants in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on Minsk for human rights violations.

On Wednesday (November 10), 27 ambassadors of the European Union will formally agree that the key step for the increasing number of immigrants along the border between Belarus and Poland is the “hybrid war”, which can be used as a legal basis for the establishment. Sanctions.

Minsk denies any such actions and refuses to accept all allegations of misconduct from the West. So far, sanctions against senior officials have not effectively weakened Lukashenko’s rule, who has been in power since 1994 and is a close ally of Moscow.

Diplomats said that EU countries are also considering expanding the economic sanctions imposed on Belarus in July, targeting the local reinsurance industry and its main state-owned company BelarusRe.

The fifth asset freeze and travel ban on Belarusian state officials and companies will be the EU’s latest response to the deteriorating standoff with Belarus over the West and Belarusian opposition in the August 2020 presidential election rigged by Lukashenko.

EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Lein, have called for stricter measures, including stricter measures against international airlines accused of transporting migrants to Minsk and then to the Belarusian border. measure.

The diplomat stated that Vladimir Makei, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who defended Belarus’ records at the United Nations General Assembly in September, is a senior official who will be sanctioned because his Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been accused of complaining to non-EU countries. Nationals, especially Syrians and Iraqis, issue Belarusian visas. .

After Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land to arrest a Belarusian opposition journalist, the European Union has banned state-owned airline Belavia from entering EU airspace and EU airports. Now, direct sanctions on the airline will prevent it from leasing aircraft from Irish, Romanian and Danish companies.

However, there is a dispute within the EU over whether sanctions should only apply to new leases or existing contracts.

More sanctions this month will bring the total number of people in Belarus subject to asset freezes and travel bans to nearly 200-including Lukashenko and his son-as well as more than a dozen institutions and companies.