The Restless Europe



During an ordinary meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, a very drastic Resolution was adopted on the situation in Belarus. The Resolution was supported by 524 votes (17 members voted against it).

European parliamentarians have adopted a lot of different documents on problems of Belarus under the reign of Lukashenko. However, the Byelorussian tyrant did not care about what the world was thinking about him and what documents were adopted on Belarus in different countries and organizations. His dictatorship has so deep routes, that it is impossible for him to reel back. By the way, Europe does not loose its hope to edify the red-hot dictator.

The resolution adopted by the European deputies on 6 April, in principle does not differ from the former ones. The draft resolution was prepared by the delegation on the relations with Belarus and by major political groups of the European Parliament.

The document, inter alia, states, that Aleksandr Lukashenko „cannot be recognized as the legitimate president, and that repeated elections should take place in accordance with the democratic standards“. It also emphasized that the elections were not in compliance with the international standards and that Belarus „was the last dictatorship in Europe“.

Besides, European deputies applied to the Byelorussian authorities with the request „to stop the power politics in terms of political prisoners“, to investigate illegal actions of the militia and to publicize the list of detainees.

Euro parliamentarians invited the Commission of the EU, the Council of the EU and the international society to identify and freeze personal accounts of the Byelorussian officials, and to strengthen the support of civil initiatives, NGO‘s and enterprises of small and medium business, projects of independent mass media, educational programs for students eliminated from universities because of political reasons, and to simplify the visa regime for the Byelorussians etc.

A new issue in the Resolution was the accusation of the Kremlin for the support of the Byelorussian regime. The document, inter alia, stated that the efficiency of the policy of the EU in terms of Belarus „is loosing its effect because of the irresponsible approach of Moscow protecting the last dictator of Europe“. In view of the above, deputies of the European Parliament encouraged the European structures to consider, together with the Russian side, all possible measures to be applied in Belarus within the framework of the „Big Eight“ group, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The above document will be sent to the governments of the EU countries, the Secretary General of the UNO, the Parliamentarian Assembly, the Council of Europe, the Parliamentarian Assembly, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the State Duma of Russia and the authorities of Belarus.

Ksenija Oreshko