The situation in Belarus is getting more tense by the day. EU leaders decided yesterday to close their airspace to the Lukashenko regime, which is accused of deliberately diverting a commercial plane to Minsk in order to arrest a government critic who was on board. Our members Engin Eroglu, Jean-Louis Bourlanges and Fréderic Petit comment on the situation.

Our German MEP Engin Eroglu praises the EU’s quick reaction in imposing sanctions on Belarusian individuals and institutions. At the same time, however, he calls for going one step further and imposing further sanctions, “because dictators like Lukashenko can only be impressed with strength. To this end, Belarus should be cut off from SWIFT, the global interbank communication system. Such measures have already been taken against Iran and have been called for several times in the case of Russia. For this, the US and the EU must organise a coordinated response and push for the disconnection from SWIFT.”

MEP Eroglu also points out that “this kidnapping by the Lukashenko regime [sets] a dangerous global precedent. A precedent that is also closely watched by much larger countries that also like to pursue their domestic enemies abroad – especially countries like China. If even a small country like Belarus can demand that a plane be diverted to Minsk, what’s to stop the Chinese leadership from forcing a plane to land in Beijing?”

Jean-Louis Bourlanges, MoDem deputy and chair of the French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee, agrees with Engin Eroglu in commending “the determination, the swiftness of the European Union’s response, this is new and extremely welcome.” “This blatant attack on the European Union” he placed in the series of humiliations towards the European Union, which includes the expulsion of diplomats at a press conference in Moscow as well as “Sofagate” in Turkey. He also reminded readers of the fact that “one of the two hostages has been granted asylum by a European Union state” and demanded that “President Lukashenko release the two hostages he has kidnapped,

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