GERMANY SUPPORTS "DOUBLE ROLLOVER" OF EU SANCTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 001406

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB - JOE WANG AND EUR/ERA - RACHEL WOLFE
EMBASSIES KYIV AND VILNIUS FOR EMBASSY MINSK

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2019
TAGS: PREL EUN PHUM BO GM
SUBJECT: GERMANY SUPPORTS "DOUBLE ROLLOVER" OF EU SANCTIONS
AGAINST BELARUS TO SINGLE END DATE

REF: A. STATE 112644

B. NOV 5 USEU EMAIL

Classified By: POLITICAL MINISTER COUNSELOR GEORGE GLASS. REASONS: 1.4
(B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY. Germany agrees that Belarus has made little
progress on human rights or democratization recently and
therefore supports a "double rollover" of both the suspension
of EU sanctions as well as the sanctions regime itself at the
November 16-17 EU GAERC meeting. We made the case for
extending the suspension of sanctions for a shorter period of
time than the mandate itself, noting that having regular
reviews of the suspension would give the EU more leverage
over Belarus, but Germany favors having a single end date for
both the sanctions regime and the suspension. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Post delivered ref A points to MFA Deputy Office
Director for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Henning
Simon and MFA Deputy European Correspondent Angela Ganniger,
emphasizing that U.S. saw little reason to change the status
quo on sanctions given the lack of significant progress from
Belarus on human rights and democracy reform.


3. (C) Ganniger said that Germany shared the U.S. evaluation
that there had been little recent improvement in human rights
and democratization in Belarus. While pointing out there
were a few bright spots in other areas (particularly Belarus'
continuing refusal to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia
despite strong pressure from Russia to do so),she agreed
that it was not time to talk about lifting the EU sanctions
regime.


4. (C) Ganninger noted that the mandate for the sanctions
regime runs until March 2010, while the suspension of the
sanctions expires in December. She said that Germany would
support a "double rollover" of both the suspension of
sanctions as well as the sanctions regime itself at the
November 16-17 EU GAERC meeting. She indicated that the
lengths of the extensions were still under negotiation. She
confirmed ref B reporting that in extending the validity of
the suspension of sanctions and the mandate itself, Germany
favored reconciling the two and having a single end date for
both.


5. (C) We pointed out that it would give the EU more leverage
over Belarus if the suspension of sanctions was extended for
a shorter period of time than the mandate and therefore
subject to regular EU review. Ganninger countered that
Belarus is already a regular topic of discussion and that a
member state can raise the issue of sanctions any time.
Ganninger also indicated that Germany thought it might be
helpful to come up with some incentives to accompany the
sanctions since the sanctions alone did not seem to be having
the desired effect on Belarusian behavior, despite being in
place for several years. In this regard, she mentioned the
possibility of going forward with a partnership agreement,
but emphasized that Germany still had no concrete proposals
at this point.
MURPHY