EU puts Sanctions on Belarus

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Recently, the European Union (EU) has put sanctions on Belarus and cut off its aviation links.

Belarus was part of the USSR before its disintegration in 1991 and lies on the flight path of routes within Europe and between Europe and Asia.

Background

Belarus authorities scrambled a fighter jet (Soviet-era MiG-29) which escorted a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania.
The plane was suddenly diverted to Minsk (capital of Belarus), on the pretext of what turned out to be a false bomb alert, where authorities detained Roman Protasevich who had been on board.
- Protasevich is a Lithuania-based journalist. He is wanted in Belarus on extremism charges and stands accused of organising mass riots and of inciting social hatred.
EU member state Lithuania urged the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to respond.

EU’s Reaction

It called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to urgently investigate Belarus forcing a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk on a Greece-Lithuania flight.
EU leaders met in Brussels and called for Belarusian airlines to be banned from the EU’s airspace and urged EU-based carriers to avoid flying over Belarus.
They agreed to widen the list of Belarusian individuals they already sanction.
The EU and other Western countries also called for the release of Mr. Protasevich.
Criticisms
- The EU has no authority over flights taking off and landing in Belarus or flying over its airspace, apart from direct flights that originate or land in Europe.
- Also, ICAO does not have any regulatory powers over the airspace.
Skirting Belarus will slow flights down and cost airlines money.

NATO’s Reaction

It has officially condemned the forced diversion and has called for an urgent independent investigation by the ICAO.
It held that the detention of Pratasevich was an affront to the principles of political dissent and freedom of the press and called on Belarus to respect fundamental human rights and freedoms and to abide by the rules-based international order.

(Image Courtesy: BBC)

European Union

It is a single market, customs union and a supranational institution of 27 member countries.
- The United Kingdom, earlier part of the union, officially got out through Brexit.
It has four types of freedom of movements: Goods, Services, People and Capital.
The Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1993, forms the constitutional basis of the EU.
The Lisbon Treaty, which was signed in 2007, amended existing treaties such as the Maastricht treaty.
- Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty introduced a procedure for a member state to withdraw voluntarily from the EU.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

It is an intergovernmental military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of 4^th April 1949.
- It was signed by the US, Canada and several western European nations to provide collective security against the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Its purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.
It has two types of objectives to fulfil
- Political Objective: It promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
- Military Objective: It is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.
A key provision of the treaty is Article 5, which states that if one member of the alliance is attacked in Europe or North America, it is to be considered an attack on all members.
- This article effectively puts western Europe under the “nuclear umbrella” of the US.
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium.

International Civil Aviation Organization

It is a specialized agency of the United Nations.
It is funded and directed by 193 national governments (India is a member) to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, 1944.
- It is also known as the Chicago Convention and was drafted in 1944 by 54 nations.
- It established the core principles permitting international transport by air and led to the creation of ICAO.
ICAO is not an international aviation regulator.

Source: TH

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