The European Commissioner for the promotion of the European way of life, Margarítis Schinás, welcomed on Friday 12 November from Beirut the efforts of some third country airlines to stop the arrival of thousands of migrants to Minsk, from where they then reach the EU’s external borders, notably those of Poland or Lithuania.
In particular, Turkey and Turkish Airlines have announced that they will no longer fly people from the Middle East to Belarus. “I would like to welcome Turkey’s decisions to limit these operations”, commented the Commission Vice-President.
In the morning, it was Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, who thanked Ankara after the Commission had threatened to blacklist airlines from certain third countries, such as Belavia, the Belarusian national airline. Belavia also decided, upon Turkish request, not to embark any more people who might travel to Minsk via Turkey to join the EU.
“I am confident that we will not have to activate these sanctions” against airlines, Mr Schinás added, saying he was also working in this direction with Lebanon, especially on smuggling networks. On Monday, he will also travel to Baghdad and hopes to go to Turkey afterwards.
The Commissioner noted that “progress has been made on all fronts” and that this crisis has allowed the EU to “count its friends”. “We are very happy to see that we have a lot”, he added.
EU Foreign Ministers are expected to agree on Monday 15 November to add the instrumentalisation of migration to the Belarus sanctions regime. This could lead to the sanctioning of an additional 30 Belarusian individuals and entities in the coming days (see other news). It is not clear whether the blacklisting of airlines will be part of the package.
EU Interior Ministers may also be called next week to determine their response. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)