Macron Demanded a New EU’s Approach towards Russia and Belarus

The current EU sanctions policy towards Moscow and Minsk is no longer effective, the French President stated and called for a radical review of relations with these countries. The EU should radically change its approach to Russia and Belarus, since the current policy of sanctions is no longer producing results. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday, May 25, after the completion of the EU summit in Brussels, by French President Emmanuel Macron. According to the French head of state, the policy of step-by-step introduction of sanctions in response to the deadlock is no longer effective. "The European Union should ask itself the question of what more effective responses might look like," Macron emphasized in this regard. From his point of view, the Europeans need "short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies" with regard to Russia, which need to be discussed before the next EU summit, scheduled for June 24-25. By this time, the European Commission, as well as EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell, will have to prepare a report on options in relations with Russia on behalf of the EU Council, according to the draft communiqué for the May EU summit. EU sanctions against Belarus As for Belarus, the sanctions imposed by the EU after the harsh suppression of protests against the rigged presidential elections in the country in 2020 were supplemented at the end of May with new penalties in connection with the incident around the Ryanair airline, which the Belarusian authorities forced to land in Minsk. and the subsequent detention of opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, who was on board. In response to this situation, the EU Council called on European airlines to stop flying over the territory of Belarus, banned Belarusian airlines from using the services of airports in the EU and closed EU airspace for them. According to news agencies, on May 26, France, Estonia and Ireland are going to discuss the Ryanair incident at a closed meeting of the UN Security Council.