Brussels, 26/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 26 October the European Parliament welcomed the “European dialogue on modernisation with Belarusian society” and called on the EU to develop its action towards civil society. In a joint resolution on the elections in Belarus, MEPs call for the creation of a “coherent long-term programme” to support and strengthen opposition organisations, in order to propose and extend dialogue with civil society. The Parliament calls on the EU to pursue its dialogue with Belarus and “to develop a clearer policy” on the country - a policy which is “subject to strictly positive conditionality”.
The Parliament calls the Commission “once again” to support, “through financial and political means”, the effort of Belarusian civil society, independent media and non governmental organisations to favour democracy. In the Parliament's view the Commission and Council should plan on measures to improve the business climate, trade exchanges, investment, transport and energy infrastructure, and cross-border cooperation. MEPs call on the Commission and Council to facilitate and liberalise procedures for granting visas to Belarusians. The Parliament also encourages the Belarusian democratic political forces and civil society to “find a united approach to strengthen the effectiveness of their action and to establish tangible programmes of political change”.
It urges the Belarusian government to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms. Regretting the way the legislative elections were held on 23 September, MEPs stress that the Belarusian parliament “does not have democratic legitimacy” and that they do not recognise it. They urge the authorities to organise new “free and fair” elections, to unconditionally free and restore political prisoners to favour, and to put an end to the list which bans several members of the opposition and human rights activists from leaving the country and travelling (our translation throughout).
During the debate, Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle said that while the EU is keeping restrictive measures against the regime, it holds out its hand to civil society. “We can look at how to invest in the future and, at the same time, how to keep technical and diplomatic communication channels open between the European Union and Belarus”, he said. He added that a greater engagement from the member states could make the dialogue on modernisation still more effective in order to generate change. MEPs criticised the non-democratic elections and called for helping civil society. (CG/transl.fl)