EU fails to agree on Belarus sanctions

The foreign ministers of the European Union's 27 member countries failed to agree on sanctions against Belarusian officials at a meeting on Monday.

The proposed sanctions were to be imposed on a list of Belarusian officials including President Alexander Lukashenko. The measures were being considered in response to the election that saw Lukashenko elected to a sixth term in office.

Cyprus, which insisted the EU should impose sanctions on Turkey for a gas exploration dispute, blocked the decision to go ahead with the move. The issue has now been postponed until the summit due at the end of this week, Russian state news agency Tass quoted a source in a European country's delegation to the EU Council as saying.

The EU foreign ministers met urgently on Aug 14 to impose sanctions on Belarusian officials and instructed the diplomatic services concerned to draw up a corresponding blacklist. However, it has been more than a month now that the EU has been unable to produce a decision.

Originally, it was expected that the blacklist would be agreed at the ambassador level by the EU Foreign Affairs Council's session on Sept 21 and the ministers would merely approve it.

However, at their latest meeting on Friday the diplomats failed to persuade Cyprus, so the blacklist remained unauthorized by the time the foreign ministers gathered on Monday.

Unclear direction

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, said although there is a clear will to adopt those sanctions, "Cyprus is missing to give us unanimity".

"I will do whatever I can in order for the next Foreign Affairs Council sanctions against Belarus to be adopted," Borrell said.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey warned earlier it would take corresponding measures against any EU sanctions.

"Naturally, if any sanctions are imposed on Belarus, I think, the Belarusian state will take corresponding steps linked, so to say, with the political functioning of states," Makey said.

Russia continues its support to Belarus, and is working on a dialogue with the United States on Belarus, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Moscow expects the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development to provide a $500 million loan to Belarus shortly.

According to Tass, Russia will grant the loan to Belarus in two stages－$1 billion in 2020 and another $500 million in 2021.