Breaking Impasse, E.U. Imposes Sanctions on Belarus
The delay in punishing Belarus for the crackdown that followed its
flawed elections had been a huge embarrassment for the bloc.
Opposition supporters in Minsk, Belarus, on Sunday. Sanctions in
response to the crackdown in the country by President Aleksandr G.
Lukashenko remain blocked by Cyprus.
Sergei Bobylev/TASS, via Getty Images
By Steven Erlanger and Monika Pronczuk
Oct. 1, 2020
BRUSSELS — European Union leaders early Friday finally broke a
longstanding impasse to impose sanctions against Belarus as they
tackled a raft of interconnected issues — from Turkey to the
coronavirus recovery fund to the rule of law — that would have been
complicated even if taken one by one.
The delay in punishing Belarus for its crackdown after flawed
elections on Aug. 9 had been a huge embarrassment for the bloc, and
one that Charles Michel, president of the European Council, which
comprises the bloc’s leaders, had insisted on resolving, at long last.
The sanctions had been blocked by Cyprus, which wants penalties
imposed on Turkey for its energy explorations in Cypriot and Greek
waters.
Early Friday morning, after eight hours of talks, the leaders agreed
on language that urges Turkey to enter serious negotiations with both
Cyprus and Greece on disputed waters and energy rights, and threatens
sanctions against it for breaches of international law. Mr. Michel
said Brussels still hoped to create “a positive agenda” with Turkey
and would review relations in December. Most important, though, the
compromise opened the way for Cyprus to lift its veto and allow the
bloc to impose sanctions on some 40 key Belarusian officials — even if
those sanctions are likely to have, as many predict, little or no
impact on President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko’s behavior or hold on
power. Mr. Lukashenko himself is not on the sanction list.
With Turkey now in talks with Greece after German and NATO mediation,
there was little appetite among many of the leaders to annoy Ankara
further by imposing sanctions against it now, especially given its
importance in helping to manage migration flows into Europe. There is
general unhappiness with the aggressive positions taken by Turkey’s
president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on display again with his support for
Azerbaijan in its clashes with Armenia. But the European Union needs
to find a modus vivendi with Mr. Erdogan, and antagonizing him further
is unlikely to change his behavior.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece, left, and Charles
Michel, president of the European Council, met in Brussels on
Thursday. Greece is in talks with Turkey over energy explorations
in Cypriot and Greek waters.
Pool photo by John Thys
Still hanging over the leaders, though, is the bloc’s problem with
violations of the rule of law in member states, and how efforts to
punish those violations are tied in with money. Of particular concern
are the coronavirus recovery fund of 750 billion euros, or about $880
billion, and the European Union’s €1.1 trillion multiyear budget.
In July, leaders agreed in a vague way to condition spending to
adherence to the rule of law. The insistence of several northern
countries, notably Austria, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands, on a
connection drew immediate opposition from Hungary, Poland and the
Czech Republic, which felt targeted by the measure.
A German proposal to open talks on that condition with the European
Parliament, which must approve the spending, is considered too lax by
a third of the member states, because it is seen as focusing more on
the misuse of money than on breaches of law. But without a deal,
delivery of the funds, which countries badly affected by the virus,
such as Italy and Spain, desperately need, will be delayed even
further into next year.
So between the two presumably worthy goals — enforcing the rule of law
with conditions on funding, and then delivering the funding more
quickly — is a political quandary that cannot be resolved quickly.
Lining up in front of a local health center in Madrid, Spain, last
week. Without a deal, delivery of the coronavirus recovery funds
will be delayed even further into next year.
Gianfranco Tripodo for The New York Times
Ms. Jourova, commissioner for European values : "The European
Union was created also as an antidote to those authoritarian
tendencies"
In the background, the European Commission, the European Union’s
executive arm, has introduced a less confrontational effort to
warn countries about authoritarian backsliding. For the first
time, the commission has published assessments of the state of
democracy in each of the 27 member states, avoiding singling out
Hungary and Poland (though their reports were more critical than
most). Democratic standards are facing “important challenges,”
especially in Hungary and Poland, where judicial systems are under
threat, the reports said. They found that prosecution of
high-level corruption in Hungary “remains very limited,” and
deemed Poland deficient in the four main areas reviewed: national
justice systems, anticorruption frameworks, freedom of the press,
and checks and balances. Prosecution of high-level corruption is
also limited in the Czech Republic and Malta, the reports said,
and there were special challenges to a free press in Bulgaria,
Hungary, Malta and Poland. Poland got particular attention,
because bloc officials believe that there is more potential for
remedial action there than in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor
Orban called for the resignation of the commissioner in charge of
the reports, Vera Jourova of the Czech Republic, who called his
country an “ill democracy.” Ms. Jourova, the commissioner for
European values, told journalists, “It is relevant to have an
overview of these issues and see the links between them — not
least because deficiencies often merge into an undrinkable
cocktail.” “The European Union was created also as an antidote to
those authoritarian tendencies,” she added.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen,
rejected Mr. Orban’s demands. But Hungary and Poland announced
that they would set up their own institute to assess the rule of
law in all member nations to avoid “double standards,” Hungary’s
foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said. He added that he had had
“enough of some Western European politicians using us as a
punching bag.” Hungary and Poland have repeatedly clashed with
Brussels over issues like judicial independence, freedom of
speech, the role of the news media and L.G.B.T.Q. rights. But the
commission has few weapons. It initiated proceedings before the
European Court of Justice, whose rulings are obeyed, albeit
reluctantly, by Budapest and Warsaw. And it set into action a
mechanism that could theoretically lead to the loss of voting
rights, but which is useless because it requires unanimity, and
Poland and Hungary have vowed to protect each another. Officials
have been reluctant to file an avalanche of cases before the court
for fear of being seen as targeting countries and because they
would take a long time to resolve. Hence the effort to tie the
disbursement of funds to the rule of law. The German proposal will
face a serious challenge in the European Parliament. Sergey
Lagodinsky, a Green lawmaker in the chamber, said,
“The report as it stands is a toothless tiger, unless it is
accompanied by an effective enforcement mechanism that includes
cutting funds in case of deficiencies.” The proposal, he said, “has
decapitated the initial idea.” But without a deal soon, warned
Michael Clauss, the German ambassador to the bloc, “delays with
consequences for Europe’s economic recovery will most likely be
unavoidable.”
The Supreme Court in Warsaw, Poland. Democratic standards are
facing “important challenges,’’ especially in Hungary and Poland,
where judicial systems are under threat.
E.U. Agrees to Penalize Lukashenko, but Gives Him Time to Back Down
Foreign ministers of the bloc, which had imposed sanctions on other
Belarus officials, agreed to apply them to the country’s president,
pressuring him to call new elections.
President Aleksandr Lukashenko speaking in Minsk, Belarus, in
September. The European Union agreed Monday to extend sanctions on the
beleaguered president in hopes he will call new
elections.
Sergei Bobylev/TASS, via Getty Images
By Steven Erlanger
Oct. 12, 2020
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to
impose sanctions on President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of
Belarus, widely seen as having stolen the recent election — but
they also appeared to offer him a way out of the penalties. The
proposed sanctions must first go through legal vetting and may
not be implemented if Mr. Lukashenko engages in serious talks
with the opposition about new elections and eases a crackdown
against protesters. Some 40 Belarusian officials have already
faced an asset freeze and a travel ban. After a violent
confrontation in Belarus on Sunday in which the police used
water cannons and arrested more than 700 protesters, the E.U.
foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, agreed to expand the
list to include the authoritarian president and others. “In line
with the E.U.’s gradual approach, the E.U. stands ready to take
further restrictive measures, including against entities and
high-ranking officials, including A. Lukashenko,’’ they said in
a statement. Once the legal work is done, the ministers will
have to approve the implementation of any new sanctions, which
they are trying to use as a means to pressure Mr. Lukashenko. He
has been under E.U. sanctions in the past, but they were lifted
in 2016 when he eased up on the opposition and released some
critics from prison. Mr. Lukashenko is already under sanctions
from the United States and Britain, as well as from the Baltic
nations. In response, Belarus has expelled several ambassadors
of E.U. member states. On Monday, the country’s Interior
Ministry threatened to use lethal weapons against the
demonstrators. Gennady Kazakevich, the first deputy interior
minister, said in a statement that protests recently had turned
“extremely radical” and that security forces would now have the
option of using more than the rubber bullets, stun grenades,
violent arrests and mass
detentions that had been deployed previously to stop the
demonstrations. “Police officers and interior troops won’t leave
the streets and will use special equipment and military weapons
if necessary,” Mr. Kazakevich said. Editors’ Picks A Columnist
Makes Sense of Wall Street Like None Other (See Footnote) How
President Trump Ruined Political Comedy James Murdoch,
Rebellious Scion The E.U. ministers also agreed on Monday to
scale back the financial support the bloc gives to the Belarus
government and to redirect some of the funds to civil society
groups. The bloc has already declared that it does not recognize
Mr. Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus after
elections on Aug. 9 that it deemed fraudulent. “The EU calls on
the Belarusian authorities to seek a peaceful and democratic
solution to the crisis through an inclusive national dialogue
with broader society,” the ministers said, supporting a plan by
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help
set up such talks. The ministers said that a substantial package
of aid would be available to support a democratic transition.
Mr. Lukashenko appeared to show some willingness to negotiate
when, on Saturday, he visited to a jail in central Minsk, the
capital, to hold a meeting with detained opposition leaders. The
meeting lasted more than four hours, during which Mr. Lukashenko
discussed possible changes to the country’s Constitution,
according to a brief video of his speech. The E.U. ministers
also agreed to impose sanctions on Russian officials and
organizations blamed for the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny, a
prominent opposition leader, with a nerve agent. But the
European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles,
provided no details about who in Russia might face sanctions or
when the measures might come into force, saying that technical
work on preparing the action was proceeding.
I Was a Stay-at-Home Mom. Now I’m Leading a Revolution.
My husband was jailed for daring to run against our president. So I
ran in his place.
In the video Op-Ed above, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya tells the
story of her improbable rise from stay-at-home mom to
revolutionary icon. She reluctantly became the figurehead of
the Belarusian opposition movement after her husband was
thrown in jail for daring to challenge Europe’s last dictator.
Belarus has been ruled by the same man, Alexander Lukashenko,
since 1994. Over the past 26 years, he has violently
suppressed many who challenged his rule — jailing opposition
candidates or driving them into exile. So Belarusians were
unsurprised when the pattern
began to repeat in 2020 — democracy was being subverted once
again. But the unlikely has happened. After rallying behind
Ms. Tikhanovskaya, widely believed to be the true victor of
the August elections, hundreds of thousands of Belarusians
have gathered in protest to make it clear they’ve had enough
of Lukashenko — and they aren’t backing down. Could this
unlikely hero be bringing an end to his tyrannical rule?
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was a candidate in the Belarusian
presidential election. She is currently in exile in Lithuania.
