BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/11/2006

EU to make offer Belarus path to improved ties

BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Union will present Belarus with proposals tomorrow for improving ties, if the authorities in Minsk are prepared to make progress on human rights, a spokeswoman said.

The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, 'in full consultation with the member states, will be transmitting a message to the Belarussian authorities tomorrow,' the Commission's spokeswoman for external affairs said.

'It will be a message pertaining to what would be on offer to Belarus if the political conditions in the country were to allow us to fully engage with it under the (EU's) neighbourhood policy,' she said.

The spokeswoman, Emma Udwin, would not explain what was in the message until the authorities in Belarus had seen it themselves.

But an EU diplomat said the Commission would ask President Alexander Lukashenko's government to guarantee the right to free, democratic elections, free access to independent information, and the release of political prisoners.

In exchange, Brussels would be ready to help Belarus -- currently under EU sanctions for human rights violations and undemocratic practices linked to the March 19 presidential elections -- out of its international isolation.

The EU has banned Lukashenko and 35 other Belarussian officials from travelling to its 25 member states, and has also frozen their assets.

Source:

http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=37230924631277

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