BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/03/2009

EU nations against sanctioning Belarus

(BRUSSELS) - European Union foreign ministers on Monday opposed the idea of reactivating sanctions against Belarus, but remained divided over the longer-term treatment of the hard-line regime.

"I think the status quo should be unchanged," said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, summing up the European view that it is more useful to maintain a dialogue in a bid to improve the human rights situation there.

At the root of the problem are the policies of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed 'Europe's last dictator', and what kind of role he and his country should play in an EU 'Eastern Partnership' scheme, aimed at improving trade and political ties with six former Soviet republics.

A draft agreement prepared for the ministers' meeting welcomed "certain positive steps" made by Belarus and its leader notably cooperation with the OSCE on electoral legislation.

However the statement, to be agreed by the 27 EU foreign ministers, also decried "recent cases of violations" of human rights in Belarus.

The most urgent EU-Belarus matter facing the ministers in Brussels was the issue of the travel bans against Lukashenko and 35 of his associates.

Last October EU nations took the step of suspending the visa bans for six months, under pressure from Belarus' neighbours Poland and Lithuania.

No European minister was arguing against extending the suspension for a further six months. But there were differences over the longer-term treatment of Belarus, which borders Russia to the east and EU members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to the west.

"I think we can find a way to plot a course between giving incentive and encouragement to the reform process in Belarus without ignoring the difficulties that remain," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

His Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski echoed Schwarzenberg's line on the sanctions.

"I believe we should maintain the current position" which seems to have alleviated the situation, he told reporters as he arrived for the talks.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet also stressed the need to "keep all channels open" and to put pressure on Minsk not to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Moscow has already done.

If there was no agreement on the sanctions at Monday's meeting then the visa bans would automatically resume.

That means that those nations most opposed to the sanctions, such as Germany, will have to agree a deal with the others, diplomats explained.

The EU must in the coming weeks also decide whether or not to invite Lukashenko to a summit in Prague in May with the other five 'Eastern Partnership' states -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Source:

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1237203123.12

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