EU Foreign Ministers were in Lisbon today for two days of informal talks known as the “Gymnich.” The Eastern Partnership and EU-Africa relations were both high on the agenda. Relations with Belarus were another key issue under discussion, particularly after the Belarussian authorities forced a passenger aircraft to divert to Minsk last weekend.
Foreign Minister Schallenberg condemned the Belarussian regime’s action.
The reality is that this amounted to an act of airborne piracy. This is something we have never seen before, not even at the height of the Cold War, and it demonstrates just how frightened Lukashenko’s regime has become of its own citizens,
he said.
Schallenberg welcomed the European Council’s decision to ask all member states to restrict air traffic to and from Belarus. At the same time, however, he warned against harming the Belarussian civilian population by imposing economic sanctions, and stressed that:
We don’t want sanctions to impact ordinary Belarussians. Austria in particular is involved in an intensive dialogue with representatives of Belarussian civil society, and we need to strengthen that dialogue.
He also emphasised that the aim behind all the EU’s interactions with Belarus should be to bring the country closer to Europe, and noted that
At the end of the day, we want to bring Belarus closer to us, not push it away.
Relations between the EU and Africa were also discussed at the Foreign Ministers’ meeting. In the course of the discussion, Foreign Minister Schallenberg called for the establishment of an effective, future-focused and mutually beneficial partnership with African countries. He identified cooperation on repatriating illegal immigrants from Europe as one area that could be improved.
