EU won’t blacklist Lukashenko due to German stance — Die Welt

Belarusian president-elect Alexander Lukashenko won’t be included on the EU sanctions list above all due to the position taken by Germany as well as by France and Italy, German Die Welt reported on Friday citing its own sources, TASS reports.

Berlin, Paris, and Rome stated that "despite all circumstances, connection channels with Lukashenko should be kept open," because, in their opinion, his blacklisting would lead to a complete suspension of dialogue with Minsk. Mainly the Baltic states and Poland urged to introduce restrictive measures against the Belarusian leader.

In the middle of August it became known that in connection with the protest rallies in Belarus, the EU is considering a list of 15-20 Belarusian officials who will be prohibited entry to the EU territory and access to the European banking system. The EU sanctions against Belarus for human rights violations were in effect from 2004 to 2016, over time the blacklist changed, at times including as many as 130 individuals. In September 2008, the European Union froze the sanctions, yet renewed them and even upgraded them after the 2010 presidential election in the republic.

At an informal meeting in Berlin on August 27-28 the leaders of the Foreign Ministries of the EU countries made a decision to complete the sanctions procedure against Belarus as soon as possible.