EU presidency says Belarus’ actions amount to ‘aggression’, does not rule out further sanctions

Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU council, described the ongoing migration influx from Belarus as “aggression”, Politico Europe reported on Thursday.

In the statement on Wednesday, Slovenia also said civil aviation needs to be prevented from being ““instrumentalised by the international smugglers’ networks”.

Previously, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said “we need to make sure that no European company participates, either directly or indirectly, in the human smuggling – as, for example, those European companies that are renting airplanes to the otherwise sanctioned Belarusian Belavia company”.

Lithuania maintains that the migration crisis from Belarus is being orchestrated by the Minsk regime and has rallied EU support against Alexander Lukashenko.

Slovenia did not mention new sanctions in the statement, but diplomats told Politico reporters in Brussels that “they are fairly confident they will come”.

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