8 April 2008
Foreign ministry condemns EU sanctions against Belarusian officials

The European Union’s sanctions against Belarus’ high-ranking government officials are “incompatible with civilized interstate relations,” the Belarusian foreign ministry’s spokesman, Andrey Papow, said while commenting on the EU’s decision to extend the sanctions.

“Our European partners are perfectly well aware of our fundamental position on the use of sanctions in general,” Mr. Papow said. “Sanctions, unilateral in this case, are an absolutely counter-productive measure.”

On April 7, the EU Council, meeting in its Transport, Telecommunications and Energy configuration, decided to extend by one year the EU’s sanctions against a large number of Belarusian officials.

As a spokesman for the EU Council told BelaPAN, the list of targeted officials was left unchanged.

There are currently 41 people on the EU's list of Belarusian officials subject to a visa ban and an assets freeze in connection with their alleged involvement in a crackdown on civil society and opposition activists in the country.