Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

France: Slovenia got Belarus firm off the hook

  • Bildt (l): 'Well, there's always a deal.' Juppe (r): 'Slovenia ... asked for an exception' (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

Slovenia flat-out denies getting a Belarusian company off the latest EU sanctions list for the sake of a few million euros. But the French foreign minister says it did.

EU countries on Friday (23 March) blackballed two Belarusian oligarchs - Yuriy Chizh and Anatoly Ternavsky - 10 officials and 29 companies.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Speaking to press in Brussels after the meeting, France's Alain Juppe said most of Chizh's firms are on the register "except, it is true, with one small exception for one daughter company, because one of the member states, Slovenia, without naming names, asked for an exception."

The exception - Elite - has a €100-million-or-so contract with Slovenian firm Riko Group to build a luxury hotel in Minsk.

Elite-Riko caused a stink in February when Slovenia threatened to veto a whole tranche of Belarus sanctions if they included Chizh. It later agreed to designate 21 jurists and policemen, but - until now - Chizh stayed off the hook.

When asked in a separate press briefing on Friday if he cut a deal on Elite, Slovenian foreign minister Karl Erjavec repeated the line he used last month: "We were not in accord with these sanctions [in February] because on the list of economic sanctions there was only one person - Yuriy Chizh - and now we have two persons and for Slovenia this is right because we need to be systematic."

When asked if the Elite-Riko hotel project can go ahead under Friday's agreement, he said: "I don't know." When asked if he had spoken with Riko's CEO in the past two weeks, he said: "No."

The director of Erjavec's political department, Matej Marn, told this website that Slovenian diplomats at no point in low- or mid-level EU talks asked for Elite to get off. "It was an EEAS decision," he said, referring to the European External Action Service.

Diplomats from fellow EU countries have a different recollection of events.

One contact said: "It's not true. They are trying to whitewash the situation. But I don't have instructions from my minister to say it on the record." He added that Slovenia made its position clear in meetings of the so-called Coest diplomatic working group.

He noted that it "set a bad precedent" because Latvia, on the basis of the Elite exemption, also got two Belarusian companies which do business with Latvia off the register.

For his part, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt - unlike Juppe - did not want to rock the boat.

Asked by EUobserver if there was an Elite-Riko deal with Slovenia, he said: "Well, there's always a deal. Everything that we do in the EU is a deal. But I don't want to single out any specific countries on any specific issues."

Slovenia shields Belarus oligarch from EU blacklist

Belarus oligarch Yuri Chizh could get off the hook after Slovenia stalled the latest round of EU sanctions, prompting concern it is putting petty commercial interests before the welfare of political prisoners.

Lukashenko trying to outwit EU and Russia

Selling arms firms from yourself to yourself, labelling petrol as solvents then petrol again - Lukashenko is trying to make a living while being squeezed by the EU and Russia.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us