The fourth package of EU sanctions against the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka is hardly to be in place by May 10, Rikard Jozwiak, a RFE/RL reporter in Brussels, said on Twitter on Tuesday.
In the course of the upcoming meeting on May 10, EU ministers of foreign affairs are to ‘exchange views’ on the Western Balkans, transatlantic relations, and Belarus, Council of the European Union reports. However, according to Jozwiak’s information, the ‘fourth package’ issue may be presented during a meeting which will be held in June. There is still no clarity on whether a group of EU member states or EEAS will propose the package, the journalist added.
Franak Vyachorka, an international advisor to Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said in early April that EU member countries submitted their proposals regarding the fourth package of sanctions which might be introduced against the representatives of the Lukashenka regime ‘in the near future’. According to him, the policy makers were expected to consider 197 undesirable individuals along with several dozen entities and define the ‘candidates’ for blacklisting on April 12; he suggested that the rollout of new sanctions might be announced one or two weeks later, but it did not happen.
Since October, the European Union leaders have imposed three sanctions packages against Belarusian officials involved in the 2020 the vote rigging and post-election violence in the country. In late January, EEAS spokesman Peter Stano warned that if ‘bad developments’ continued in Belarus, the sanction regime might be extended. At the same time, Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey said in an interview with the Russian media outlet RBC that Belarus had hardly lost all the opportunities to further cooperate with Western partners.
