PARIS, 10 June. /TASS/. The European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution calling for the EU to impose new individual and sectoral sanctions against Belarus. The vote was broadcast by the EP website.

"The EU sanctions list must be expanded. The resolution urges the Council to sanction the Belarusian individuals and entities involved in the forced landing and the abductions as soon as possible," the document says.

In particular, the MEPs consider it necessary to include in the list of those responsible for the forced landing of the Ryanair flight and for the arrest of the co-founder of the extremist telegram channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich and his Russian companion Sofia Sapega.

"EU member states must also proceed with utmost urgency with the next package of sanctions against those who took part in or were complicit in electoral fraud last year and the subsequent human rights violations in Belarus," says the text.

"Prosecutors, judges and law-enforcement employees who play a role in the repression should be on the sanctions list, as should agents working on disinformation, media, propaganda and officials supporting the regime, such as Marat Markov, who interviewed Raman Pratasevich on the state channel ONT on 2 June," the document says.

MEPs call for swift economic and sectoral measures targeting key Belarusian industries, in particular the crude oil and oil products, potash, steel, and wood-processing sectors. Financial support to the regime must be strictly denied, any new credit lines to the country’s banks refused, and investments in infrastructure or economic undertakings must be halted. European financial institutions must be prevented from acquiring bonds or any other financial instrument issued by the Belarusian government and affiliated public institutions.

MEPs urged suspension of cooperation of European companies, in particular Siemens (Siemens), with Belarusian partners, as well as technology transfer.

The resolution also states that Belarus should be suspended from international sports bodies and international events, including European and world championships and the Olympic Games in Tokyo. MEPs further urge the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to remove broadcasting rights for the upcoming EURO 2020 football tournament from Belarusian state television TVR and assign them to the independent Belsat TV free of charge.

Ryanair plane incident and sanctions

On May 23, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight that took off from Athens made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a reported bomb threat. No explosive devices were found on board, so the incident turned out to be a false alarm. Minsk specified that Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel recognized as extremist in Belarus, had been among the passengers. Protasevich was detained after the airliner had landed in the Belarusian capital. Later, it was reported that Russian national Sofia Sapega had been detained along with Protasevich.

The plane left Minsk and continued on to Vilnius later on the same day.

On May 24, due to the incident with the Irish Ryanair passenger plane, the EU summit decided to ban Belarusian airlines from flying to airports of EU countries and flying over their territory and also recommended that European carriers refuse to fly in the airspace of Belarus. More than 20 countries closed their air space for the Belarusian airline.