The use of migrants as levers to put pressure on the EU and “destabilize it” is unacceptable, and Europe now responds by freezing the visa liberalization process for politicians and diplomats not only from Minsk, but also from local authorities that respond to the president Alexander Lukashenko. It is the politically strongest decision in the European Commission’s new package of measures on immigration.
In its proposal it is specified that the concession of travel documents on favorable terms “does not affect the entire population” of Belarus, but only those who work for institutions and organizations. Members of the central government and parliament, members of regional governments, as well as members of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court “in the exercise of their functions”. The EU is therefore launching an attack on the Lukashenko regime at every level. This does not mean a ban on entry on European soil, but only a ban on entry at favorable conditions and lower costs to obtain the necessary pass.
The immigration report accompanying the decision denounces, as a “worrying development” of the situation, “the exploitation of migration for political ends at the various external borders of the EU”. Here the “most striking” case is the one recorded in June of this year, when the Minsk government began marching Iraqi refugees to the Lithuanian and Polish borders.
The EU executive acknowledges that in these countries, together with Latvia, they have experienced “an unprecedented increase in irregular border crossings”. A phenomenon that is not accidental, since “there is evidence” that the Belarusian government encourages all this. Hence the decision to exclude the regime from the visa liberalization process. The proposal will now be examined by the Council.