The leaders of the European Union (EU) member states have reached an agreement on imposing sanctions on Belarusian officials. European Council President Charles Michel announced that 40 people would be blacklisted.
“We have decided today to impose the sanctions that have already been agreed. This is very important, and it is a clear signal. We are not changing our position, and it is very important to implement what has been decided. More specifically, we will have a written procedure tomorrow and we will “You already know that there was a list of about 40 words on the table,” said European Council President Charles Michel.
The agreement provides for travel bans and asset freezes on government officials of former Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who are responsible for the falsification of the August 9 presidential election and the brutal repression of post-election protests.
However, Lukashenko himself will not be sanctioned.
EU leaders managed to agree on restrictions after Cyprus refused to veto. Official Nicosia had previously blocked the decision and demanded that the restrictions be extended to Turkey, which is exploring for natural gas in the Mediterranean. The leaders promised that such a decision could be made in the future.
CONTEXT:
Sanctions against Belarusian officials, as well as relations with Turkey and China, will be some of the key issues at this EU summit.
Although all EU countries agree that Belarusian officials involved in electoral fraud and torture of protesters should be sanctioned, this has still not happened. This is due to the insistence of the Cypriot government to impose similar sanctions on Turkish officials involved in the arbitrary exploration of oil and gas off the coast of Greece.
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