Informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers to convene
An informal meeting organized by the European Council presidency will today convene to discuss pressing foreign policy developments, particularly in Belarus.
Last Saturday, a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forcibly diverted to Minsk by Belarussian authorities to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. Condemned by European Council President Charles Michel as an “international scandal”, the Council had since moved to adopt sanctions against relevant officials and has called on banning Belarusian airlines from EU airspaces and airports. The increased political tension also threatens Belarus’ Yamal gas pipeline, which runs from Russia to Poland and Germany, providing Minsk with $2 billion a year in fees and refinery profits.
Expect the informal meeting to discuss further punitive measures to be taken against Belarus, as Minsk shows no sign of backing down given its expulsion all Latvian diplomats from the country on Monday. Targeted sanctions and pressures on the Yamal gas pipeline are also increasingly probable, with senior European politicians calling for more severe measures. The Belarus affair also implies a further worsening of tensions between EU and Russia, with Russia defending Minsk’s handling of the incident.
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