What did 6 November 2020 show about Europe's rule-of-law signals?
A look back at two developments reported around 6 November 2020: a Milan acquittal of a Ukrainian guardsman and EU sanctions on Belarus's leadership.
What did 6 November 2020 tell observers about how Europe handles accountability? Two reports from that period, though unconnected, point in a similar direction.
On 6 November 2020, the European Union announced sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son Viktor, police chief Ivan Tertel and Chief of Staff Igor Sergeenko. The announcement was listed under the 2020 Belarusian protests and the wider state of Belarus–European Union relations, and it named individuals rather than the country as a whole.
Three days earlier, on 3 November 2020, the Milan Court of Appeal acquitted Vitaliy Markiv, a Ukrainian National Guard serviceman. He had been found guilty on 12 July 2019 and sentenced to 24 years in prison. The appeal court found him not guilty of the crime for which he had been convicted.
The two items differ in kind: one is a political decision by the EU, the other a judicial ruling in Italy. What they share is a focus on individual responsibility, whether through targeted sanctions on named officials or through an appeal court reversing a heavy sentence. For Ukraine, the Milan outcome concerned one of its own servicemen directly, while the Belarus measures concerned a neighbouring state's leadership.
