EU Belarus Policy Stumbles as Cyprus Seeks Help Over Turkey

(Bloomberg) -- European Union efforts to put pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are on hold, as a separate crisis in the bloc’s backyard lays bare its struggles to reconcile competing national interests.

Foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday failed to make good on their promise to sanction dozens of Belarusian officials involved in a contested election and the violent suppression of protests because of disagreements over how to deal with Turkey’s energy claims in the eastern Mediterranean.

Cyprus refused to sign off on measures against Belarus unless all other member states also agreed to expand an EU blacklist against Turkey over its natural-gas drilling activities in Cypriot waters. The EU has called the Turkish energy hunt off Cyprus illegal and the matter will now be taken up by the bloc’s leaders when they meet in Brussels on Thursday.

Overcoming the stalemate has become a test of the EU’s ability to assert itself at a time of regional instability and increased tensions between the U.S. and China. Sanctions decisions by the 27-nation bloc must be approved unanimously.

“Our credibility is at stake,” EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels after the ministerial meeting.

‘Values and Principles’

While there’s consensus on the need to take action against Belarus, member states’ conflicting priorities have hampered EU efforts to act decisively on foreign policy.

In February, the EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans on two employees of Turkish Petroleum Corp. in response to Turkey’s gas exploration off Cyprus. A Cypriot proposal to include Turkish entities and add individuals to that blacklist has been delayed since June as other countries fret about provoking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a key partner both in economic affairs and in controlling Middle East migration to Europe.

The delay has frustrated Cyprus, which claims that Turkish drilling activities are encroaching on its sovereign rights in the Mediterranean. The Cypriots say the delay in sanctioning Turkey goes against an agreement last month by EU foreign ministers to move ahead with both processes at the same time.

“Our reaction to any kind of violation of our core values and principles cannot be ‘a la carte’,” Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said before Monday’s meeting.

Sanctioned Individuals

France expressed understanding for Cyprus’s stance, saying the EU must be “firm” with Turkey and urging Ankara to make a goodwill gesture by removing a drilling vessel from Cypriot waters.

“The options are open,” Clement Beaune, France’s junior minister for European affairs, told reporters on Monday in Brussels. “It’s a test for Europe.”

Beaune said the political situation regarding the eastern Mediterranean is in flux and held out the possibility of a development that would allow for an EU sanctions deal at this week’s EU summit.

Separately on Monday, the EU blacklisted a Turkish company -- Avrasya Shipping -- for allegedly breaking a United Nations-mandated arms embargo against Libya.

German officials have expressed concern that Cyprus’s determination to expand February’s blacklist may imperil efforts to resolve a related dispute between Greece and Turkey over maritime claims in the Aegean Sea. The two sides are close to starting exploratory talks following a tense summer that saw warships from both navies collide during a standoff in contested waters.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appealed to EU lawmakers on Monday to blacklist officials who have helped President Alexander Lukashenko thwart a “democratic revolution.”

“Belarusians will no longer be hostages of Lukashenko’s regime,” Tsikhanouskaya told a European Parliament committee in Brussels. “We ask you to stand united alongside the Belarusian people.”

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