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