Brussels, 22/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is ready to work with the new Belarusian minister of foreign affairs, Vladimir Makeï, while he is subject to the EU's financial and economic sanctions and while relations between the EU and Belarus are extremely tense. “The EU will continue to work with the new minister of foreign affairs according to the same plan as with the previous minister, Mr Martynov”, who has been appointed to another post, Sébastien Brabant, the deputy spokesperson for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, said on Monday 20 August. Belarus called on the EU on Monday to delete the name of its minister from its “black list” so that he can travel in the whole world.
Revision of sanctions and discussions with ambassadors. On 10 August the member states, meeting in the Political and Security Committee (PSC), discussed relations between the EU and Belarus following the expulsion the previous week of Swedish diplomats in Minsk, including the ambassador, Stefan Eriksson, and following the closure of the Belarusian embassy in Stockholm. This expulsion came about after teddy bears were air-dropped on 4 July containing calls for freedom and respect for human rights by Swedish activists. The member states have said that “the EU is set to review its restrictive measures against Belarus before 31 October 2012, and agreed that in assessing the broader context of the EU-Belarus relationship and internal developments in Belarus, the evolution of the situation stemming from the current diplomatic crisis caused by Belarus will also be taken into account”. The member states have also decided that the Belarusian ambassadors “should be summoned to the foreign ministries of the EU member states and to the European External Action Service (EEAS), in order to receive the position of the EU in this regard”.
Europeans have “decided that the restriction of political contacts with Belarus will be subject to due consideration” and say that the measures decided by Minsk “have impacted on the conditions for the political dialogue between the EU and Belarus”.
The member states have also expressed their unreserved support for Ashton's statement saying that the decision of Minsk “runs counter to norms of relations between member states”. “The European Union and Sweden are committed to the modernisation of Belarus and to the spread of European values, in particular democracy, human rights and the rule of law”, Ashton added in a press release published on 3 August.
For his part, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, called on 10 August for the Belarusian authorities to review their decision and resume dialogue, saying that this decision is not going to help break Belarus' isolation from the rest of Europe. (CG/transl.fl)