Belaruskali’s workers have called for tougher European Union (E.U.) sanctions against the company, claiming the current sanctions hardly harm the ability of the potash producer to work in the European bloc.
According to a statement cited by the Brussels-based EUobserver on July 5, Belaruskali’s Strike Committee said for sufficient pressure to be applied on the Belarusian regime, it is necessary to include all types of potash in the E.U. ban and all stakeholders both in Belarus and abroad. The Strike Committee also named Austrian firm SolTrade as a key partner of Belaruskali in Europe.
The E.U. on June 24 agreed to a sweeping set of sanctions against the Belarusian regime, targeting key economic sectors, and included restrictions on Belarus’ potash trade (GM June 25, p. 1).
Belaruskali workers argue that sanctions only harm the people in power in Belarus, and said President Alexander Lukashenko was already finding ways to evade even the limited sanctions, according to the EUobserver report. According to the report, these ways allegedly include changing product codes in customs papers.
The E.U. this week pledged to help Member State Lithuania handle an influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, which the Baltic country said is being encouraged by authorities in neighboring Belarus as part of that nation’s retaliation to the European bloc’s sanctions, according to an AP report.
Belarus’ Foreign Ministry said on June 28 Belarus would move to suspend a readmission agreement with the E.U. that is aimed to stem illegal migration, (GM July 2, p. 1). On July 2, Lithuania declared a state of emergency due to the influx of migrants across its border with Belarus.
Meanwhile, Switzerland this week widened its sanctions against Belarus, adding 78 individuals and seven organizations to its sanctions list, according to a National Post report, citing the website of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
Switzerland first imposed sanctions against Belarus in 2006 to protest against what it called violations of the rule of law and human rights.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on July 7 approved proposals for the application of personal economic sanctions and other sanctions against unnamed Belarusian officials, and the government subsequently agreed to the sanctions, according to a report by Ukraine news portal Bukvy.The Cabinet of Ministers will submit proposals to the National Security and Defense Council within a month,
Ukraine last year froze contact with Belarus, with which it shares a border, and joined the E.U. in condemning the elections as neither free nor fair. According to the report, the sanctions against the Minsk officials will be imposed for a three-year period.