Turkey and Belarus
“Late last night, agreement was reached on a text about the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey. There were several interruptions in the discussions and a number of bilateral talks were held before the texts were sufficiently sharply worded for Cyprus to agree to lift its veto on the Belarus sanctions. Among other things, the conclusions now state that if there is any more unilateral action on the part of Turkey or provocations in contravention of international law, the EU will use all the instruments and paths of action at its disposal. There is also special reference to the sections of the Treaty about how sanctions are agreed,” said Minister for EU Affairs Hans Dahlgren after the summit.
“Once that issue was resolved, we were quickly able to agree on sanctions against those responsible in Belarus. It has now been almost two months since the election, which was deemed illegitimate, and it is most certainly high time that the EU takes action,” added Mr Dahlgren.
Heads of state and government also discussed the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and the nerve agent attack against Alexei Navalny.
The summit concluded with the European Commission updating EU leaders on the negotiations over the future relationship with the UK.
Sweden was represented by Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
Minister for EU Affairs Hans Dahlgren followed the summit closely on site in Brussels.
