The European Union’s foreign ministers, at their informal meeting in Luxembourg on September 4 and 5, may discuss the possibility of suspending the 28-nation bloc’s sanctions targeting scores of Belarusian government officials and other individuals, Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported with reference to a source with EU institutions.
“The decision of President Lukashenka on releasing jailed opposition leaders creates conditions for suspending the sanctions. This will be discussed on September 4-5,” Tass quotes the diplomat as saying.
According to the source, some EU countries have already called for discussing the possibility of suspending the sanctions by at least one year.
Read also: Lukashenka releases political prisoners
The complete abolition of the sanctions will not be discussed, said the source. The release of the six political prisoners was ordered by Alyaksandr Lukashenka and is not the result of deep judicial reforms or the democratization of Belarus’ political system, he noted.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Johannes Hahn, the commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, earlier said the prisoner release marked ‘important progress towards the improvement of relations between the EU and Belarus’.
In addition, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius named the release of six political prisoners a ‘major step’ and urged the EU to revise its policies towards Minsk.
www.belsat.eu/en/, following BelaPAN
