German Foreign Ministry reported following the talks of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis that Germany and Lithuania were in favor of imposing tough sanctions against Minsk over the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border
“The parties agreed that the European Union should respond [by imposing] tough sanctions”, – the agency said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Maas also issued a statement on 11 November that the European Union intends to adopt sanctions against Belarus on Monday, 15 November.
“The European Union will expand and tighten sanctions against the regime of [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko. We will take this decision on Monday <…> in Brussels. We will continue to punish those people and companies that are involved in targeted smuggling anywhere in the world. In addition, there are other options under consideration, such as extending existing sanctions, in particular so-called sectoral sanctions, i.e. economic sanctions”, – Maas said.
According to Maas, imposing sanctions on airlines is not easy from a legal point of view, as they are not doing anything illegal in terms of the law. However, the EU countries, as Maas pointed out, “are considering bringing those involved in the smuggling ring to justice”.