The EU boasts of a comprehensive and well-documented sanctions framework. It has formulated basic principles, guidelines, and best practices of applying restrictive measures. On 7 December 2020, it introduced the new EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EUGHRSR). The new tool is projected to allow the EU “to target serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, irrespective of where they occur, whereas existing sanctions regimes focus on specific countries”.
The procedure of imposing sanctions under the EUGHRSR remains similar to the original country sanctions mechanism. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and EU member states can put forward proposals for listings. The Council [in its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) configuration] decides on the listings and imposes restrictive measures in its CFSP Decision. Measures such as arms embargoes or restrictions on admission are implemented directly by the member states, which are legally bound to act in conformity with CFSP Council Decisions. The Council then proceeds to adopt a regulation which contains the measures on interrupting or reducing, in part or completely, economic relations with a third country, including measures freezing funds and economic resources.
The imposition of sanctions requires a unanimous vote by the Council, which is often held hostage to intra-EU controversies. The European Parliament (EP) does not take part in the decision-making procedure on sanctions. However, as a norm entrepreneur, the EP actively advocates for human rights in the EU’s foreign policy and is arguably the most vocal actor in calling for EU sanctions. In its September 2020 resolution on Belarus, the EP strongly supported (574 votes in favour) targeted EU sanctions against individuals responsible for the falsification of the election results and the repression in Belarus. While this resolution is not binding, such broad support sends a strong political signal to other EU institutions.
Once sanctions are adopted, the Council notifies the sanctioned persons of the measures taken and provides them with an opportunity to present observations, upon which the measures may be reviewed. The EU targeted sanctions must be based on evidence that links the sanctioned persons to the violations for which the sanctions are imposed. The EU sanctions can be appealed at the EU’s Court of Justice. Once adopted by the Council, the responsibility to implement sanctions lies with the EU member states.
Belarus has been on the EU sanctions map since 2004, when four Belarusian officials (Yury Sivakov, Victor Sheiman, Dmitri Pavlichenko, and Vladimir Naumov) associated with the enforced disappearances of Yury Zakharenko, Viktar Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovskiy, and Dmitriy Zavadskiy were put under travel restrictions.
In 2006 sanctions were imposed in response to “violations of international electoral standards and international human rights law, as well as for the crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition”. The sanctions extended to 36 Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko. By 2012, the sanctions list had grown to include 243 Belarusian officials and 32 entities. The restrictive measures expanded from travel bans to asset freezes and prohibitions on exporting arms and equipment that may be used for internal repression. In 2016, following the release of six political prisoners, targeted sanctions were mostly lifted, with only the arms embargo and initial sanctions on four Belarusian officials remaining in force.
Following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and the brutal crackdown that ensued, the CFSP Council has yet again resorted to the sanctions mechanism. So far, four packages of sanctions have been adopted, targeting a total of 166 state officials (170, counting the four officials from the 2004 sanctions list), including Lukashenko and 15 companies or state entities. The fourth package of sanctions also included broad sectoral sanctions, particularly those affecting the potash industry. Belarus is one of the world’s largest producers of potash, a major fertilizer ingredient, exporting 12.046 million metric tonnes in 2019. Revenue from the potash industry is the single largest source of funding in Minsk’s annual budget. Most of the export potash passed through the Lithuanian (EU) port of Klaipeda; now it will need to be redirected, most likely through Russian ports.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to violence; unjustified arrests; and falsification of election results.
The measures are designed to remain in force for as long as the violations persist
Scope: Targeted – travel bans and asset freezes in respect of 40 state officials associated with electoral fraud, repression and intimidation, arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, and torture.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to violence; unjustified arrests; falsification of election results; unlawful presidential inauguration; detention of political prisoners; and repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members, and journalists.
The measures are designed to reciated with electoral fraud, repression and intimidation, arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, and torture.
Scope: Targeted – travel bans and asset freezes in respect of 15 state officials associated with electoral fraud, repression and intimidation, arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, and torture.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to violence; unjustified arrests; falsification of election results; unlawful presidential inauguration; detention of political prisoners; repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members, and journalists; and ongoing repression of civil society.
The measures are designed to remain in force for as long as the violations persist.
Scope: Targeted – travel bans and asset freezes in respect of 29 state officials and 7 companies associated with electoral fraud, repression and intimidation, arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, and torture.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to violent repression of civil society, democratic opposition and journalists; the violent repressions of persons belonging to national minorities; ongoing repression of civil society; the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, Belarus, on 23 May 2021 endangering aviation safety, and the detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Roman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega.
The measures are designed to remain in force for as long as the violations persist.
Scope: Targeted – travel bans and asset freezes in respect of 77 Belarusian individuals and 8 entities which support and benefit from the Lukashenko regime, including 7 individuals and one entity (Beloaeronavigatsia) associated with the unlawful landing of RyanAir Flight 4978.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members, and journalists; the violent repressions of persons belonging to national minorities; ongoing repression of civil society; the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, Belarus, on 23 May 2021 endangering aviation safety, and the detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega.
The measures are designed to remain in force for as long as the violations persist.
Scope: Sectoral – import bans and restricted access to EU capital markets. Exports to Belarus from the EU of technology or software used for interception of the internet and of telephone communications and dual-use goods and technologies for military use are prohibited; imports to the EU of petroleum products and potassium chloride (‘potash’) from Belarus are restricted; the provision of insurance and reinsurance to public bodies in Belarus is prohibited; European Investment Bank are to end payments under existing contracts to public bodies in Belarus; and member states are required to divest multilateral development bank funds from Belarus.
Conditionality: The sanctions were adopted in response to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the external borders of the Union or the transfer of prohibited goods and the illegal transfer of restricted goods, including hazardous goods, into the territory of a Member State; instrumentalising migrants for political purposes; ongoing hybrid attack launched by the Belarusian regime.
Scope: Targeted – travel bans and asset freezes in respect of 17 officials and 11 entities (including JSC “Airline Belavia”), including companies from Belarus, Syria and Turkey, organising or contributing to the abovementioned activities by the Lukashenka regime.