Strasbourg, 14/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Parliament debated the European Commission's position on the situation in Belarus, on which the MEPs will vote on a resolution on Thursday. Presenting the state of play in relations between the EU and Belarus in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), Loyola de Palacio said that it was "sad that nothing has changed in recent years, and that we are still criticising the same things". The general situation in Belarus is not "that of a democracy, but of a dictatorship", stressed the Commission Vice-President, who considers that "the required conditions have not been met to apply the ENP". However, she added that "the EU is prepared as always to try to make progress, if there is a goodwill gesture from the authorities of this country". This view was shared by most political groups, which called for a reinforcement of support measures for the democratic forces, and for a team to be sent to observe the elections. Only the United Left (GUE-NGL) and sovereignist (IND-DEM) groups called, in varying degrees, for some moderation on the part of the EU in the run-up to the elections.
If we go along with the recently declared intentions of the Belarussian leader, Alexandre Loukachenko, to try for a third presidential mandate post 2006, the positive signal the EU is waiting for is unlikely to come from Minsk. In order to legitimise the constitutional changes required by his standing for a third term as president, Mr Loukachenko hopes to call upon the Belarussian people to vote in a referendum on 17 October. By holding this on the same day as the elections themselves, he is trying to "distract the voters from what is really at stake in the parliamentary elections", said German Green MEP Elisabeth Schroedter. Speaking on behalf of the EPP-ED, group, the Pole Bogdan Adam Klich said that the EU was "too timid at the moment". He added: "it is a good thing to have frozen the programmes and suspended contacts with Loukachenko after 1996, but it is important to maintain them with civil society (NGOs, schools, local authorities, young people etc), and measures are needed to do this more directly". Mr Klich proposed to send a mission to observe the elections in Belarus, and then draw up a report to be used as a basis for future relations between the EU and this country. "Loukachenko is preparing to carry out a constitutionalised coup d'Etat", said the Vice-President of the PES group, Jan Marinus Wiersma. Also calling for an observer mission to be sent out, he suggested that a parliamentary troika be set up in the future. For the Liberals (ALDE), Cecilia Malmström called upon her colleagues to support the dreams of those who are fighting: "Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe, but the regime is what it is and we cannot abandon the democratic forces". Elisabeth Schroedter said that "this regime engenders terror", but "the EU has not done enough to help Belarus out of its isolation (...), and has ignored the EP's proposal for new programmes and credits to renew measures". Jiri Mastalka of the United Left, on the other hand, said that "if the EU wishes to take position, it must understand that Belarus is a specific case: it is a large country and a young democracy without experience of independence from a cultural and economic point of view". He fears that the EP's interference will only make things worse for the citizens, because "when we wish to help, we should not just fire off criticism of the country or try to bring down the government". Wojciech Wierzejski, speaking on behalf of the Sovereignists (IND-DEM), said that "calling the democratic nature of the elections into question before they have even taken place is not a good thing". He feels that "the EU should not exceed its competencies, but should wait for the results and then act". He announced his group's opposition to the idea of sending out a delegation to write a report. The UEN, on the other hand, represented by Krzysztof Szymanski, felt that the EU should not ignore conflict with its nearest neighbours: "it must protect the opposition, and make sure that the President cannot do anything and everything".
Loyola de Palacio conceded that political pressure had not had the hoped-for effects of accelerating the democratisation of the country, but "the Commission is prepared to become more active, but there are limits". Financial aid exists (notably under the TACIS programme to the tune of 10 million EUR for the period 2005-2006), but the Belarussian authorities have put up a series of administrative obstacles, to make it hard for aid to reach civil society. "All aid must be registered with the Belarussian authorities, which allows them to turn down any aid which does not work towards their objectives", said Ms de Palacio. She also said that she was disposed to work to ensure that MEPs could visit Belarus as part of the election mission, but that an invitation was required, which only the OSCE had obtained for the forthcoming elections. On Monday, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs said that they feared the referendum "will not be conducted in line with international democratic norms", and that "relations between Belarus and the EU will suffer greatly from it". "The Presidency has invited the Member States to send as many observers as possible to attend these elections", the press release concludes.