EU Commission chief: sanctions against Belarus to be widened

The European Union will widen sanctions against Belarus next week, European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday after a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

"Very rapidly at the beginning of next week there will be a widening of the sanctions against Belarus," she told reporters after the meeting, noting that sanctions would apply to individuals as well as entities.

EU diplomats have said the EU plans to target some 30 people and entities including the foreign minister and Belarusian airline Belavia.

The EU and NATO accuse President Alexander Lukashenko of using migrants as a weapon to pressure the West by sending people fleeing the Middle East to Minsk and then onto the borders of Poland and the Baltic states.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his ally, Russia's Vladimir Putin, have placed the blame on the EU.

Von der Leyen said she understood the United States had prepared sanctions against Belarus that would be in effect at the beginning of December.

"We will look into the possibility of sanctioning those airlines who facilitate human trafficking towards Minsk and then the EU-Belarus border," she said.

According to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "reiterates the importance of ensuring that migration and refugee issues are dealt with according to humanitarian principles and international law". "Such situations should not be used for political purposes or become a cause of tension between states".

Pressure on countries from which migrants fly to Belarus in hope of entering the European Union, and on airlines that take them, could do more to end the migration crisis on the Belarus-EU border than new sanctions on Minsk, a senior EU official said. "More sanctions against Belarus...I am not convinced they are the most effective. In these circumstances we must make clear to third parties involved, even if not involved consciously, that they are participating in something that is not acceptable and they must stop," the official said. EU ambassadors agreed on Wednesday that Belarus' decision to encourage Middle Eastern migrants to enter Poland can legally be considered a "hybrid attack" that serves as a basis for a new round of sanctions Russia and NATO weigh in as crisis mounts on Belarus-Poland border on Minsk, diplomats said. The sanctions package will now be discussed by experts on Thursday with the possibility of approval on Monday when EU foreign ministers hold a scheduled meeting in Brussels.

But the EU official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said pressuring countries from which migrants are coming, like Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, United Arab Emirates or Iraq, could be more effective, giving the example of the UAE. "We have a visa-free policy with the Emirates and companies there are part of this system (of transporting migrants to Belarus)," the official said. "We must tell the authorities there to stop this, or, if not, we should think about putting on hold the visa policy with the Emirates."

Belarus is facilitating the trafficking of migrants with the aim of destabilizing the European Union and France is prepared to back tougher measures against Minsk, a spokeswoman of the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"This is why France (...) is ready to examine a strengthening of measures against the Belarusian regime, the persons and entities involved in this trafficking in human beings," the spokeswoman said.