Riga/Brussels, 09/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 7 March, the Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, announced that the EU was going to try “to deepen and broaden cooperation with Belarus” at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga on 21-22 May.
“There is a possibility of deepening and broadening cooperation with Belarus while we know that problems remain - especially the issue of political prisoners - but we are going to try and move forward in this direction anyway”, Rinkevics announced at the final press conference of the informal Foreign Affairs Council (Gymnich), during which the ministers made preparations for the Eastern Partnership summit. A European source stated that the relations between the EU and Belarus were more positive than in the past. “The atmosphere is more positive”, the source said.
According to this source, the EU appreciates the “really important” role that Belarus played in finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis by facilitating the negotiations between the Ukrainians, Russians, Germans and French. On the domestic level, Belarus made “serious, small but nonetheless positive” steps with the release of political opponent Ales Bialiatski in June 2014 (see EUROPE 11106), the source stated. The source also said that while Belarus had been opposed to the negotiations on visas over the years, it agreed to discuss them during the Eastern Partnership summit in November 2013 (see EUROPE 10974) and the negotiations are now under way, the source stated.
On 9 March, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn met the Belarusian deputy minister for foreign affairs, Alena Kupchyna. They discussed the future of the Eastern Partnership, the review of the European neighbourhood policy (on which Kupchyna offered Hahn a contribution from Minsk) and bilateral relations between the EU and Belarus. Hahn also spoke about the situation of political prisoners and said the EU called for their release. He may travel to Minsk in April.
Belarus still applies the death penalty and is considered to be the last dictatorship in Europe. Its president, Alexander Lukashenko, is subject to sanctions from the European Union. According to the European source, the issue of inviting Lukashenko for the Riga summit was not discussed at the Gymnich-format Council meeting. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)