Brussels, 12/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner for Enlargement and Policy, Stefan Füle, has acknowledged the need for rapid and well-balanced action towards Belarus. The Belarusians are “our neighbours and partners” and the European Commission has a duty to act “quickly and proportionately” and in such a way as not to isolate the citizens, he stressed on Wednesday 12 January, at the extraordinary meeting of the “foreign affairs” committee of the European Parliament (AFET). The European Commission is proposing an approach which will guarantee “openness towards society and the citizens” and “targeted measures, including sanctions, against the authorities”, he said. This double approach, which is also recommended by the democratic opposition, whose representatives met the President of the Parliament and the High Representative of the EU, Catherine Ashton, on Wednesday, has two planks. Firstly, “negative” priority measures to obtain the immediate release and safety of all detainees - these include a ban on President Lukashenko and other individuals travelling to the EU. Ashton is to deliver an ultimatum on this to the regime when she meets Minsk's foreign minister, Sergei Martynov, on Wednesday. Secondly, there will be a raft of “positive” measures to support civil society. These will focus on supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the media and students, Füle explained. The Commission has already contacted its member states to urge them to accept expelled students at their universities. On 2 February, Poland is hosting a conference of donors, and Lithuania has announced its support to the Belarusian University in exile at Vilnius. Füle also supported the introduction of measures to relax the issuing of visas. This measure should be “top of our agenda", without handing the "authorities a gift", he stressed. In the future, the EU will review the content of the temporary joint plan negotiated with Minsk, redirect assistance under the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Instrument (ENPI) towards supporting civil society and enlarge the debate at regional level, Füle said.
The president of the EP, Jerzy Buzek, called for a revision of relations between the European institutions and Belarus. “Since (the elections of) 19 December, the situation has changed. Our relations must take account of this,” he said after his meeting with members of the democratic opposition (Aliaksandr Milinkievich, Andrei Aliakandrau, Stanislau Shushkievich, and the daughter of the imprisoned presidential candidate Eva Nyaklyayev). Despite the positive signs registered during the electoral campaign, the election did not meet democratic standards, according to a joint declaration published after the debate by the members of the AFET and human rights committees, the delegation for relations with Belarus and the EP delegation to EURONEST. The MEPs believe that suspending sanctions (including the freezing of assets) should be conditional upon the release of the prisoners. They also called for increased financial assistance to civil society and to students. The EP will decide this Thursday on sending a delegation to Minsk and will debate the question of Belarus at next week's plenary session. On behalf of the opposition, Milinkievich has called on the EU to take “simultaneous action” to free those held. “We must act as a matter of urgency, these people who have been beaten up have no access to medical care,” stressed Nyaklyayev. The head of the EP delegation for relations with Belarus, Poland's Jacek Protasiewicz (EPP), said that since 19 December, “there is no more space for business as usual”. “Emotional speeches and moral support will not be enough (…). The key geopolitical question is to whose benefit what has happened. The course of events leads to Russia,” said his fellow Pole Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP). (A.By./transl.fl)