On Monday 15 November, the Foreign Ministers of the EU27 will discuss the deepening of relations with the Western Balkans and relations between the EU and the Sahel—the two topics on the agenda of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
The sanctions on Belarus, the worrying situation in Sudan and Ethiopia, and the status of the Cypriot town of Varosha will also be discussed in the context of current affairs.
In the afternoon, there will be an Eastern Partnership meeting and a joint meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers (see other news).
Belarus. Foreign Ministers are expected to decide on a political agreement to extend the legal framework of sanctions against Belarus to the political instrumentalisation of migration.
“We are going to give ourselves the legal framework to sanction those who push these poor people to the border”, said a senior diplomat. Another diplomat added that there would not be a sanctions package in place by Monday.
“We all see the urgency [of the situation], but we have to be legally ready," explained one diplomat, while another said that “discussions take time, because we need a very solid legal basis to define the criterion of instrumentalisation of migration”.
The legal framework is expected to provide the possibility to sanction natural or legal persons, entities, or bodies responsible for organising activities of the Lukashenko regime facilitating the illegal crossing of the external borders of a Member State, but also the smuggling of illegal or dangerous goods into the territory of a Member State.
This framework should enable restrictive measures to be adopted in the coming days or weeks against some 30 individuals and entities, with work on the listings already underway.
According to an EU source, the measures concern both people involved in migration and those linked to human rights violations in Belarus.
While the idea has been floated by several EU leaders, ministers will likely not sanction third-country airlines for transporting migrants. On Friday, the European Commission announced positive developments in talks with third countries and companies to stop transporting migrants to Belarus (see other news).
For his part, the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, has already warned that his country will respond to any new sanctions against his country.
On Friday morning, the EEAS Director for the Eastern Partnership, Michael Siebert, met with Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik to call for an end to the instrumentalisation of migration and to ensure humanitarian access—at least for UN agencies—to the country.
Humanitarian access has just been granted to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who arrived on the scene the day before.
2,000 migrants stranded on the Belarus-Poland border have been given basic necessities, the European Commission announced on Friday.
Sahel. Ministers will exchange views on the EU’s relationship with this strategically important region, as reflected in the new integrated EU strategy for the Sahel, based on mutual accountability of partners, adopted last April (see EUROPE 12701/6).
The focus will be on the acute security and humanitarian crisis in the region. The worrying situation in Mali—where the transitional authorities intend to postpone the presidential and legislative elections in February—will be discussed.
“We have a long-standing development, humanitarian, and security commitment to the Sahel. We are following the political situation in Mali with great concern”, a senior European official said on Friday.
At their meeting on 18 October, ministers had discussed the financial and political levers available to the EU, including the possibility of considering restrictive measures against those who impede the transition programme, in support of the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and in line with the European Council conclusions of last May (see EUROPE 12749/13).
On 7 November, the extraordinary summit of ECOWAS Heads of State adopted targeted sanctions against the transition leaders and their families. Regarding possible targeted EU sanctions, the same source said, “the legal possibility is there, but there has not yet been an in-depth discussion”.
According to a diplomatic source, the discussion on the Sahel will aim to encourage the countries of the region (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad) to respect the commitments they have made: “6 months after the adoption of the strategy, we are going to see how to reinforce our action. We must send a message of support to those countries that respect their commitments and a message of firmness to those that respect them less, like Mali”.
Western Balkans. The Council is also expected to discuss relations with the Western Balkans, just over a month after the EU/Western Balkans summit in Slovenia (see EUROPE 12806/1).
The discussion will also follow a first discussion held in May. The debate should focus on strengthening cooperation in the region and the EU’s political engagement in areas such as political dialogue on common foreign and security policy issues, security cooperation, and resilience. According to one diplomat, the aim is to see how to make EU support more tangible and to ensure that countries in the region look to the EU and not to third countries.
Difficulties in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, as well as tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (see EUROPE 12826/7), could also be addressed.
Varosha. Diplomatic leaders are expected to return quickly to the situation in Varosha, a town in northern Cyprus whose status Turkey is seeking to change (see EUROPE 12770/1). The European External Action Service is currently working on a set of options for responding to Turkish actions, which will be presented to the December Council.
Ethiopia. Ministers will again discuss the worsening humanitarian and security situation in the country, with the intensification of the armed conflict, but also the need to achieve a ceasefire between the government and the rebels in Tigray, in line with the EU’s appeal (see EUROPE 12826/5).
“We have been working on this for months. Our first priority is to obtain a ceasefire, because there is a real risk of the conflict spreading and threatening the whole of the Horn of Africa”, a senior EU official said on Friday.
Sudan. Ministers will take stock of the situation in Sudan since the military coup of 25 October, a country where the military power remains deaf to the diplomatic efforts of the United States, the African Union, and the EU for a return to transition. Arbitrary arrests continue and the Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, is under house arrest and prevented from having contact with representatives of the international community (see other news).
Latin America. The High Representative will also briefly inform ministers about his recent visit to Peru (see EUROPE 12825/21) and Brazil (see EUROPE 12827/19).
Conclusions. Without debate, the Council should approve conclusions on the 6th Review Conference of the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons and on the 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Eastern Partnership. The Council will be followed by an Eastern Partnership ministerial meeting with ministers from the partner countries, except Belarus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine), ahead of the summit on 15 December. The discussion will feed into the preparations for the summit, which is expected to set out a new vision for the EU-Eastern Partnership and approve the Partnership’s post-2020 agenda.
Strategic Compass. Finally, the EU27 ministers will be joined by their defence counterparts to discuss the ‘Strategic Compass’ (see EUROPE 12830/2 and other news). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Camille-Cerise Gessant)