European foreign ministers are expected to move towards sanctions on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, after reports of systematic abuse and torture of Belarusians swept up in the brutal crackdown on protests.

The EU’s 27 ministers are holding an emergency video meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the elections in Belarus, after Austria became the latest country to call for sanctions against those responsible for violence and arbitrary locking up of protesters.

Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark have called for “restrictive measures against officials” responsible for the election result, which gave Lukashenko 80% of the vote following a contest the EU said was “neither free nor fair”.

“We need additional sanctions against those who violated democratic values or abused human rights in Belarus,” the head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted on Friday. “I am confident today’s EU foreign ministers’ discussion will demonstrate our strong support for the rights of the people in Belarus to fundamental freedoms & democracy.”

Germany’s government has said the EU must increase the pressure on Lukashenko, while Sweden has called for targeted measures to be considered.

“The brutality and the detention of peaceful protesters and journalists in Belarus isn’t acceptable in the Europe of the 21st century,” the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said. “This is why we have to increase the pressure on those in power there.”

EU sanctions must be agreed by unanimity and a legal decision is not expected on Friday.

The most likely sanctions are asset freezes and travel bans on officials responsible for the disputed elections and violent crackdown, with each name requiring unanimous approval.

EU sources suggested Friday’s meeting could result in a political decision to impose sanctions, with legal details to be ironed out at a face-to-face ministerial meeting in Berlin on 27-28 August, when sanctions could be finally approved.

Hungary was seen as the main obstacle to EU action, following Viktor Orbán’s visit to Minsk in June, where he called for existing EU sanctions to be dropped.

Budapest, however, did not oppose an EU statement on Tuesday that threatened sanctions against those “responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests and falsification of election results”. Following talks with the Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, said on Thursday that the two countries shared the same assessment of the situation.

EU sources suggested Hungary could exert influence in narrowing the number of individuals on the sanctions list.

The British government has not revealed if it supports sanctions against Belarus, but under the terms of the Brexit transition the UK would have to enforce any EU measures that came into force before the end of the year.

The foreign office minister Wendy Morton described the violence as “appalling” and called on the Belarusian authorities to release “all those unjustly detained” and engage in dialogue with the opposition.

An EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and security said the bloc was “regularly in touch with it likeminded partners”, including the UK on shared concerns and priorities, but added: “It remains to be seen if there will be a specific contact after [Friday’s foreign ministers] video conference.”

EU foreign ministers are also expected to discuss how the EU could mediate between Lukashenko and protesters. Poland and the three Baltic states have called on the autocrat to “immediately initiate a dialogue with the Belarusian people”.

The EU lifted most sanctions against Belarus in 2016 as it sought a rapprochement with Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994.

The decision to ease sanctions followed the release of political prisoners and a downturn in Minsk’s relations with the Kremlin, but one former presidential candidate, Andrei Sannikov, called it “a grave mistake”.

The EU retains a ban on arms sales and sanctions on four individuals linked to the unsolved disappearances of opposition politicians, a journalist and businessman in 1999-2000.

Belarus is not the only crisis at the EU’s border vying for attention. Ministers will discuss rising tensions in the eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey and the political crisis in Lebanon following last week’s catastrophic explosion.

France announced this week it was sending a naval frigate and two fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean, amid a growing row between Athens and Ankara over offshore energy reserves.

Emmanuel Macron last month called for EU sanctions against Turkey over what he called “violations” of Greek and Cypriot sovereignty in their territorial waters. But that has met a cool response from Berlin, which has called for “de-escalation and solution-orientated dialogue”. Brussels also stopped short of proposing sanctions in a recent statement on the “extremely worrying” situation.