Eight More Countries Align with EU Sanctions Against Belarus
The European Union Council has announced that eight additional countries are aligning with the recent personal sanctions imposed against Belarus at the beginning of August.
This announcement comes through an official statement from the EU Council.
The candidate countries for EU membership, namely North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, have joined the sanctions. Additionally, members of the European Free Trade Association Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, as part of the European Economic Area, will also enforce these restrictions.
"They will ensure the alignment of their national policies with the Council decision. The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it," states the announcement.
Recall that on August 3, the Council of the European Union approved the imposition of sanctions against 38 individuals and three legal entities from Belarus due to the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
The sanctions list now include employees of Belarusian penitentiary institutions involved in torture and cruel treatment of prisoners, propagandists, judges linked to the persecution of democratic opposition, activists, and journalists.
Three Belarusian state-owned enterprises, which took measures against their workers or dismissed them for participating in peaceful protests and strikes, have also been added to the list, including the Belarusian State Petrochemical Concern "Belneftekhim."
The EU Council has also expanded the prohibition on exporting critical goods and technologies to Belarus, which could bolster its military and technological potential. This decision also introduced additional bans on exporting firearms and ammunition, as well as items and technologies that could be used in aviation and space industries.
EU ambassadors endorsed the introduction of these new sanctions against Belarus for its involvement in Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine as of late July.
The deliberations on imposing restrictive measures against Minsk due to its role in Russia's aggression against Ukraine have been ongoing in Brussels for several months.
The EU Council's decision aligns the sanctions against Belarus with the sanctions' regime against Russia.