Brussels, 20/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 20 September, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt informed MEPs from the foreign affairs committee at the European Parliament of some important autumn deadlines in several countries in the East. He emphasised the necessity of free elections in Belarus on 23 September, in Georgia on 1 October, and in Ukraine on 28 October.
Bildt is not very optimistic with regard to Belarus. “We will see if the elections are free. We will be able to see if it is dramatic or not”, he said. He is more optimistic for Georgia, however. “I think that the elections will not go off too badly”, he said. He recalled that more than 2,000 observers, including from the European Parliament and Council of Europe, will be present to assess the way the elections take place. “An assessment of the elections will be made. That means that the elections will be monitored, that we will be able to trust the results”, he said, but adding that there is always a way to create troubled waters.
The minister also recalled than the EU wants free and transparent elections in Ukraine, yet wondering if this is possible when some of the opposition is in prison. These elections will have consequences on future relations between Kiev and the EU, he warned, while he was in Ukraine a few days ago to meet President Victor Yanukovych and discuss the situation.
Bildt is also concerned at renewed tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that although the EU had a certain influence on Erevan, this is not the case for Baku. “If there is a war over High Karabakh, the consequences will be very heavy”, he said, adding that the “more the days go on, the worse the situation becomes”. (CG/transl.fl)