The European Union has started moving towards establishing a new relationship with Belarus. The European Commission (EC) started the trend, with a proposal to invite Belarusian foreign minister Sergei Martinov to a high-level meeting, although this was then reduced to an invitation to gatherings on the margins of the Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting in the middle of September.
These moves come in the month that followed the release of three political prisoners in the eastern European dictatorship.
The Council conclusions on Belarus noted the prisoners’ release with satisfaction, stating that this was regarded as ‘a significant step towards the adoption by Belarus of the fundamental values of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and that this was a precondition for the European Union’s reviewing the restrictive measures currently applying to certain leading figures in Belarus.’
But this optimism was not echoed by all. Opposition leader Alexander Kazulin held meetings in the European Parliament in the same week as the Council meeting, and warned Europeans that ‘there have been no important changes concerning the democratisation of Belarus.’
Kazulin was one of the political prisoners freed, after being locked up for two and a half years. He lamented the continued lack of free and fair elections in the country, saying that his own daughter was bound to be unsuccessful in her bid to run for parliament ‘because of her last name’.
The CONCORD working group on Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood (EPAN) has just sent a letter to the EC concerning the barriers erected by the EC’s Non State Actors and Local Authorities (NSA-LA) budget line to Civil Society Organisations in Belarus. If you would like more information about this letter please contact TRIALOG’s policy officer Rebecca Steel (trialog@concordeurope.org).
Links:
- EU Observer: EU breaks the ice with Belarus: http://euobserver.com/?aid=26703
- EU Observer: EU Ministers to take a risk on Belarus: http://euobserver.com/24/26739
- EU Observer : Belarus opposition leader urges EU caution: http://euobserver.com/24/26751
- Council conclusions on Belarus: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/gena/102746.pdf
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
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