EU to ban Belarus airlines from airspace
EU ambassadors have today agreed a plan to ban Belarus airlines from flying over EU territory or landing in EU airports.
The decision will come into effect at midnight Central European Time (CET), barring any surprise last-minute objections by EU states, three diplomats told Reuters.
The EU is also strongly recommending that EU airlines do not fly over Belarus, but have not put in place a legally binding ban on them doing so.
The ban comes in response to Belarus’ decision to force a Ryanair flight carrying a dissident journalist to land in Minsk last Sunday.
Belarusian journalist and activist Roman Protasevich, a former editor of the Telegram channel Nexta and Nexta Live and a prominent critic of President Alexander Lukashenko, was then arrested.
The move has been condemned around the world, with the EU in the process of deciding on whether to hit the eastern European country with sanctions.
The UK has already stripped Belarus’ national carrier Belavia of its operating licence, and told its airlines to avoid the country’s airspace.
Air travel watchdog International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also launched a robe into the incident, which Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary branded a “state-sponsored hijacking”.