On Monday 12 September, Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn welcomed the election of members of the opposition to the Belarus parliament in elections on 11 September.
He told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee in Strasbourg that although there had been deficits in terms of political democracy he was delighted with every positive development, and that two opposition parliamentarians (Ed: out of a total of 110) had managed to enter parliament.
In a press release published in the evening of 12 September, a spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) said that while the preliminary conclusions of the OSCE/ODIHR observers showed there were "visible efforts" to address some long-standing issues, "a number of key OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe's Venice Commission recommendations remain unaddressed".
The spokesperson said this "this shows the need for comprehensive electoral reform as part of the broader democratisation process, in cooperation with international partners". "We expect the Belarusian authorities to resume work on this without delay", the spokesperson added, saying that this will "also be key for achieving the full potential of EU-Belarus relations". The spokesperson stated that the European Union was committed to a stable, democratic and prosperous future of the country and that it would continue its work "with this objective firmly in mind".
Hahn said the next Eastern Partnership summit, of which Belarus is part (along with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) should take place under the Estonian Presidency (in other words, in the second half of 2017) in a location yet to be defined. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)