The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, pleaded on Thursday 27 May, at the end of the informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers (Gymnich) in Lisbon, for a rapid adoption of the sanctions agreed by EU leaders on Monday 24 May on Belarus.
“We need to move forward quickly”, he said after the meeting, at which ministers discussed the measures.
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Borrell explained that the aim was to give the EU Council’s working groups guidelines for working on economic and sectoral sanctions. “The Europeans are always reluctant to take economic sanctions, but this time we really have to take measures that Lukashenko will feel”, Mr Borrell said in an interview with the AFP.
According to him, the decision will not be long in coming. “If we want to do it, we can do it quickly”, he said. However, Mr Borrell explained that it was necessary to amend the legal acts on measures against Belarus to include economic and sectoral sanctions.
“It is clear that we will not be satisfied with small sanctions measures, but that we aim to significantly target the economic structure and financial transactions in Belarus with sanctions”, warned German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
While no decisions were taken at the meeting, according to the High Representative, there are few economic sectors that can be targeted for action, as Belarus’ exports are concentrated in a few areas.
For the Lithuanian minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, it is necessary to sanction sectors that benefit the regime, citing oil production, and for his Estonian counterpart, Eva-Maria Liimets, “companies that are close to the Belarusian regime”.
For his part, Luxembourg’s Jean Asselborn highlighted potash exports, which he said would “hurt Lukashenko badly”. “The country is a major potash exporter: $2.5 billion. Everything goes through the Baltic countries. It’s easy to control it if you really want to...”, explained Mr Borrell to the AFP. He also considered that gas coming to Europe via Belarus could come to Europe via another pipeline, “and Belarus would lose the transit costs, which is not negligible”.
Speaking to the media, Mr Borrell announced that the individual sanctions, which have been under discussion for several weeks, were at a very advanced technical level and could be adopted before the next Foreign Affairs Council, scheduled for 21 June. During the Council, the ministers will meet with the Belarusian political opponent Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
G7 unity
In parallel to the Gymnich, the G7 Foreign Ministers (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Japan) and the High Representative warned in a joint statement that they will redouble their efforts to hold the Belarusian authorities to account, including the imposition of further sanctions if necessary.
The day before, in a meeting with some media, including EUROPE, the US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, had welcomed the EU’s quick reaction after the hijacking of the plane and the arrest of Roman Protasevich.
“This was just amazing how fast and how swiftly and decisively the EU has acted. And we will, of course, look at all of the options we have at our disposal—sanctions are among them—to decide how to move forward and where it makes sense for us to move forward together”, she explained.
See the G7 statement: https://bit.ly/3hYLdW6 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)