Council of Ministers Decision on Belarus
... 3. Due to the absence of tangible progress in the areas identified in the Council Conclusions of 13 October 2008, the Council is not able to lift the restrictive measures in place against certain officials of Belarus. Therefore, it decides to extend until October 2010 the restrictive measures provided for by Common Position 2006/276 CFSP, as extended by Common Position 2009/314/CFSP. However, in order to encourage progress in the areas identified by the EU, the Council decides at the same time to extend the suspension of the application of the travel restrictions imposed on certain officials of Belarus, in accordance with the terms set out in Council Common Position 2009/314/CFSP, until October 2010. ...
Here is my article in "Belarusians and Market" dedicated to the issue (the original in Russian is placed here http://belmarket.by/ru/53/200/4044/):
Same limitations with more possibilities
Maryia Sadouskaya
The Council of Ministers of the European Union decided to extend Solomonic decision on Belarus for additional eleven months, until October 2010. Belarusian officials will stay under financial and visa entry sanctions, but the last ones will be partially frozen.
According to the decisions of the Council taken on November 17, Belarus has reached insufficient progress on the way of reforms and democratization, and therefore, it is impossible to cancel all the limitations imposed on its officials.
In particular, the government was criticized for the cases of "dispersal of peaceful protests", "still a big number of denials in registration of non-governmental organizations, political parties and independent mass media", as well as the absence of the moratorium on the death penalty.
So, it was decided that two types of sanctions will continue to be in place against the number of Belarusian officials.
First type is financial sanctions. Unlike the United States, the European Union has not yet implied them in practice. In theory, these sanctions allow any country of the European Union which thinks that its banks have accounts of certain Belarusian officials, their families or other persons of interest, to freeze those accounts and stop any business activity with enterprises which belong to mentioned officials. The list of the officials can be found in the attachment IV to the document 2006/362/CFSP on the web page www.eur-lex.eu. For instance, president Alexander Lukashenko and several high officials of presidential administration are included in the list.
According to the document, "All funds and economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled by persons who are responsible for the violations of international electoral standards in the Presidential elections in Belarus on 19 March 2006 and the
crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition, and those natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them… shall be frozen".
The only exclusions to that can be the means which are spent for "basic needs" of family members of those officials, such as meals, or medicine, or tax payments, or flat rent.
Not only EU countries agreed to apply both types of sanctions. The decision is signed also by Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
However, though financial sanctions are in place for already three years, no one mentioned them recently, neither in Brussels, nor in Minsk. Even the decision taken by the Council of Ministers vaguely says about some "limitation measures" and doesn't mention "assets freeze".
To clear the issue we asked for a comment the press service of the Council of Ministers. According to press secretary of the Council Francois Head, financial sanctions against Belarusian officials have never been stopped or delayed and will continue to be in place at least until October 2010.
While first type of sanctions was almost forgotten, the second type, visa limitations, was very loudly discussed in the media. Visa sanctions limit the access to the EU territory of several Belarusian officials who, according to the EU, are related to the cases of disappearance of prominent Belarusian politicians, businessmen and journalists. The list of officials is quite long, but since October 2008 most of the participants of the list got temporary permission to enter the European Union. All, except for five people: Head of the election committee Lidziya Ermoshina (she is held responsible for elections forge), Uladzimir Navumau (former minister for internal affairs), Dzmitry Pauliczenka (former chief of the special force units), Viktar Sheyman (former chief of security council) and Yuri Sivakou (former minister for internal affairs).
The decision of the Council underlines that this temporary permission can be extended or stopped basing on Belarusian progress in democratization, rule of law, human rights and freedoms.
Though the "stick" of sanctions extention seems to be quite hard, ministers of the European Union in their decision gave enough "carrots" to Belarusian government to prevent a sharp response.
While the first part of the decision describes sanctions, its second part has several practical suggestions to the European Commission and other bodies of the EU which would allow to work out de-facto a special scheme of relations with Belarus in the framework of Eastern Partnership and European Neighborhood Policy. In particular, ministers jointly addressed the European Commission demanding to find out a solution for easier visa regime for Belarusian population.
The most important task given to the EU commission is to create a special action plan for Belarus based on the model of action plans used for other EU neighbors which, unlike Belarus, are fully included to the EU neighborhood policy. Usually such plans are drafted in Brussels following bilateral consultations with the governments of neighboring countries and include only those topics which are approved by both sides. Therefore, the priorities for reforms, which should be included into Belarusian plan, can be seriously influenced by Belarusian authorities who might persuade the EU that election code liberalization is a bigger priority than accreditation of unpleasant external media, etc.
It is obvious that the European Union increases the scope of possibilities for the dialogue between Brussels and Minsk, and in expert hands these possibilities can lead to the serious increase of EU financial streams to Belarusian state projects. It is not a secret that EU neighbors, including Belarus, are competing for funds, which would assist them in development of infrastructure, improvement of border control, tackling impacts of ecological catastrophes like Chernobyl, etc.
Belarusian official reaction to the Council's decision proves that it didn't become a total disappointment for Minsk. According to Belarusian MFA spokesperson Andrey Papou, "the decision certainly reflects the tendency of normalization of relations between our country and the EU". The first, "political", part of the decision the MFA representative blamed for double standards which "create barriers for the new level of our relations".
According to European politicians, however, the barrier is not the sanctions themselves but their cause. Minister for foreign affairs of Sweden which is the president of the EU until the end of the year, Karl Bildt, in the interview to euroradio.fm mentioned that the EU is "disappointed by the slow tempo of progress" in Belarusian reforms and "gives one more chance" to Belarus by the Council's decisions. The EU Commissioner on external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner called the decisions "pragmatic" ones, saying that they open "a window of opportunities".
Here is my article in "Belarusians and Market" dedicated to the issue (the original in Russian is placed here http://belmarket.by/ru/53/200/4044/):
Same limitations with more possibilities
Maryia Sadouskaya
The Council of Ministers of the European Union decided to extend Solomonic decision on Belarus for additional eleven months, until October 2010. Belarusian officials will stay under financial and visa entry sanctions, but the last ones will be partially frozen.
According to the decisions of the Council taken on November 17, Belarus has reached insufficient progress on the way of reforms and democratization, and therefore, it is impossible to cancel all the limitations imposed on its officials.
In particular, the government was criticized for the cases of "dispersal of peaceful protests", "still a big number of denials in registration of non-governmental organizations, political parties and independent mass media", as well as the absence of the moratorium on the death penalty.
So, it was decided that two types of sanctions will continue to be in place against the number of Belarusian officials.
First type is financial sanctions. Unlike the United States, the European Union has not yet implied them in practice. In theory, these sanctions allow any country of the European Union which thinks that its banks have accounts of certain Belarusian officials, their families or other persons of interest, to freeze those accounts and stop any business activity with enterprises which belong to mentioned officials. The list of the officials can be found in the attachment IV to the document 2006/362/CFSP on the web page www.eur-lex.eu. For instance, president Alexander Lukashenko and several high officials of presidential administration are included in the list.
According to the document, "All funds and economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled by persons who are responsible for the violations of international electoral standards in the Presidential elections in Belarus on 19 March 2006 and the
crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition, and those natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them… shall be frozen".
The only exclusions to that can be the means which are spent for "basic needs" of family members of those officials, such as meals, or medicine, or tax payments, or flat rent.
Not only EU countries agreed to apply both types of sanctions. The decision is signed also by Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
However, though financial sanctions are in place for already three years, no one mentioned them recently, neither in Brussels, nor in Minsk. Even the decision taken by the Council of Ministers vaguely says about some "limitation measures" and doesn't mention "assets freeze".
To clear the issue we asked for a comment the press service of the Council of Ministers. According to press secretary of the Council Francois Head, financial sanctions against Belarusian officials have never been stopped or delayed and will continue to be in place at least until October 2010.
While first type of sanctions was almost forgotten, the second type, visa limitations, was very loudly discussed in the media. Visa sanctions limit the access to the EU territory of several Belarusian officials who, according to the EU, are related to the cases of disappearance of prominent Belarusian politicians, businessmen and journalists. The list of officials is quite long, but since October 2008 most of the participants of the list got temporary permission to enter the European Union. All, except for five people: Head of the election committee Lidziya Ermoshina (she is held responsible for elections forge), Uladzimir Navumau (former minister for internal affairs), Dzmitry Pauliczenka (former chief of the special force units), Viktar Sheyman (former chief of security council) and Yuri Sivakou (former minister for internal affairs).
The decision of the Council underlines that this temporary permission can be extended or stopped basing on Belarusian progress in democratization, rule of law, human rights and freedoms.
Though the "stick" of sanctions extention seems to be quite hard, ministers of the European Union in their decision gave enough "carrots" to Belarusian government to prevent a sharp response.
While the first part of the decision describes sanctions, its second part has several practical suggestions to the European Commission and other bodies of the EU which would allow to work out de-facto a special scheme of relations with Belarus in the framework of Eastern Partnership and European Neighborhood Policy. In particular, ministers jointly addressed the European Commission demanding to find out a solution for easier visa regime for Belarusian population.
The most important task given to the EU commission is to create a special action plan for Belarus based on the model of action plans used for other EU neighbors which, unlike Belarus, are fully included to the EU neighborhood policy. Usually such plans are drafted in Brussels following bilateral consultations with the governments of neighboring countries and include only those topics which are approved by both sides. Therefore, the priorities for reforms, which should be included into Belarusian plan, can be seriously influenced by Belarusian authorities who might persuade the EU that election code liberalization is a bigger priority than accreditation of unpleasant external media, etc.
It is obvious that the European Union increases the scope of possibilities for the dialogue between Brussels and Minsk, and in expert hands these possibilities can lead to the serious increase of EU financial streams to Belarusian state projects. It is not a secret that EU neighbors, including Belarus, are competing for funds, which would assist them in development of infrastructure, improvement of border control, tackling impacts of ecological catastrophes like Chernobyl, etc.
Belarusian official reaction to the Council's decision proves that it didn't become a total disappointment for Minsk. According to Belarusian MFA spokesperson Andrey Papou, "the decision certainly reflects the tendency of normalization of relations between our country and the EU". The first, "political", part of the decision the MFA representative blamed for double standards which "create barriers for the new level of our relations".
According to European politicians, however, the barrier is not the sanctions themselves but their cause. Minister for foreign affairs of Sweden which is the president of the EU until the end of the year, Karl Bildt, in the interview to euroradio.fm mentioned that the EU is "disappointed by the slow tempo of progress" in Belarusian reforms and "gives one more chance" to Belarus by the Council's decisions. The EU Commissioner on external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner called the decisions "pragmatic" ones, saying that they open "a window of opportunities".