The European Parliament’s Resolution is a Helping Hand for Belarus

According to Ales Lahviniec, advisor to the Movement for Freedom (the MFF) Chairman, a thorough analysis of the European Parliament’s resolution text allows to find new elements in the EP’s decision.

The European Parliament’s resolution on the situation in Belarus – passed on December 17 by the absolute majority of votes – reflects an important interest of the European deputies to Belarus and to the circumstances of the current dialogue between the EU and Belarus.

In his comments on the resolution, Lahviniec points out that this new resolution of the European Parliament reflects the overall complexity of the processes going on in Belarus and includes both the critical evaluation of the latest events of political life and the list of the advantages which Belarus and its citizens could have in the case of the full-scale cooperation with the united Europe.

The resolution text includes the list of the latest facts of political harassment, calls on the Belarusian authorities to respect their international obligations and the rights of the Belarusian citizens, and stresses the absence of prior consultations with the OSCE ODIHR before the decision to change the Election Code was taken.

In addition to including almost every item of the European People’s Party resolution which was passed the last week in Bonn, this resolution introduces new elements into the EU position: attention is drawn to the insufficiency of measures on the struggle against corruption, on ensuring the rule of law, its transparency, and strengthening in order to attract more foreign investments; the persistent appeal to the Belarusian authorities is included to sign the agreements on travelling without visas for the residents of the areas bordering on the EU member states. Since there are no free and legitimate elections in Belarus, the European Parliament – based on the proposal of the European Conservatives and Democrats Group – calls on all representatives of the EU and of the member states to arrange political meetings with the representatives of the democratic opposition, particularly during their visits to Belarus.

Concerning the key issue of representation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership Parliamentary Assembly (the Euronest), the decision was made that the Belarusian parliament cannot be invited to the full-fledged participation until the free and fair elections take place. Therefore, 10 representatives of the democratic community will be invited to the Euronest as the observers.

“The results of the discussion of the resolution on Belarus and the resolution text itself clearly show the presence of attention to Belarus in the European Parliament and the EU’s will to develop full-scale relations with Belarus”, Lahviniec pointed out.

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