The foreign ministers of EU countries will soon make up the "black list" of Belarusian businessmen. This was stated by the Slovenian Minister Karl Erzhavets who on March 9-10 participated in the informal EU summit in the format "Gymnich" in Copenhagen.
During the interview with Slovenian media, the diplomat, in particular, spoke of the wide discussion on the applying sanctions against Belarus, Iran and Syria.
Referring to unofficial information, the minister said that after two weeks at a regular working meeting of foreign ministers the sanctions against the leaders of Belarusian companies and businesses which support Lukashenko regime will be discussed, according to Radio Liberty with reference to Slovenian media. Karel Erzhavets noted, this list will include not only Jury Chizh, who cooperates with Slovenian company Rico.
During his speech in Copenhagen, the minister said, the EU needs a common strategy for economic sanctions and those sanctions should not affect the interests of only one EU country.
Erzhavets was referring to an episode that appeared in the February summit of European ministers in Brussels. Then Ljubljana has blocked the inclusion of Chizh in the list of Belarusian officials against whom the sanctions should be applied. The official reason was that Chizh is the only businessman in the list, though not the only one of the entrepreneurs who support Lukashenko's regime:
"We support sanctions to prevent human rights violations, but we need to ensure a consistent approach, so that the economic sanctions if they are agreed, will be effective", Erzhavets said.
Unlike the Council of Ministers of Foreign affairs of the EU, at the meeting in the format "Gymnich" held today in Copenhagen, the official decisions are not adopted.
