Economic Cooperation
From the onset of diplomatic ties in 1992, the European Union has been a significant economic partner for Belarus.
Since 2021, trade in goods and services between Belarus and the EU, previously valued at several tens of billions of euros (the EU served as the secondary pillar of foreign trade and economic relations for Belarus, second only to Russia), has shown a steady decline. Due to the introduction of EU restrictive measures that violate international law and the widespread practice of interpreting them broadly in the EU, supplies of a number of Belarusian goods (petroleum products, wood products, metal products, fertilizers, chemicals, building materials, etc.) that were essential to the EU economy's competitiveness have been disrupted.
In recent years, due to sanctions, the EU's role as a supplier of investment and intermediate goods, including chemicals, metal products, engineering products, and various types of equipment, has also significantly diminished in Belarus. The niches vacated by EU companies are being actively exploited by suppliers from other countries, as well as Belarusian enterprises.
Currently, economic cooperation with the EU is limited. In addition to direct sanctions restrictions, trade cooperation is also hampered by barriers in supply logistics and payments.
At the initiative of the European side, sectoral dialogues between Belarus and the EU, which were ongoing in the areas of customs, environmental protection, foreign trade, economics, and finance, have been terminated. The EU has also suspended most technical assistance programs that made an important contribution to the development of the state border of Belarus and neighboring EU member states, the modernization of border and customs infrastructure, the exchange of best practices, and the implementation of pilot projects in energy, transport, agri-food, environmental protection, education, culture, and other priority areas benefiting ordinary people.
As a result of acute politicization of energy cooperation within the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG), in the spring of 2022 the EU decided to suspend Belarus's participation in ENSREG meetings as an observer, making important nuclear safety issues in the region dependent on the political situation in the EU.
