Ales Belyatsky, the jailed leader of Vesna

Commissioner Füle met with seven major opposition parties and movements of United Civil Party, Fair World, Belarusian Christian Democracy, Belarusian Popular Front, Tell the Truth Campaign, Movement For Freedom and European Belarus. The meeting commemorated the first anniversary of the presidential elections in Belarus last December, which were marked with repressions and arrests of the critics of the Lukashenka regime. 

As the response to the violent suppression of and persecution of the opposition of the Lukashenka regime, European Union issued sanction against the list of 245 Belarusian officials.  Various Belarusian representatives have been banned from travelling to the EU and their foreign assets have been frozen over their alleged involvement in the crackdown on the country’s opposition. 

With a dictatorship bordering the European Union, Štefan Füle declared Belarus to be high on the Union’s agenda, but the re-engagement with the official authorities in Minsk would only be possible when all political prisoners have been released and rehabilitated. 

The call for Belarusian authorities to observe human rights, promote and practice democratic principles, and foster economic modernization was proclaimed by the leaders of the European Union and the United States of America at their common summit in Washington held on Monday: “We insist that the Government of Belarus immediately release and rehabilitate its political prisoners, and make progress towards respect for the principles of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.” 

While the representatives of the Western countries calls for implementation of democratic measures, the Belarusian Supreme Court sentenced on Wednesday Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavalyou accused of the April bombing of a Minsk metro station to death.  Many Belarusians believe the two men to be innocent. The pending executions caused an outrage of human rights activists and politicians all round the world. 

“The European Union opposes capital punishment under all circumstances. The death penalty is considered to be a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity. I therefore urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying it, to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its universal abolition," stated Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission. 

The foreign ministers of the 27 European Union members states are expected to approve the extension of sanction against Belarus as a reaction to the death sentence as well as the to the recent imprisonment of the human rights defender Ales Byalyatski. 

Commissioner Füle claimed that: “the European Union stands to extend visa bans, but won’t impose economic sanctions.” The representatives of the European Union have supported and emphasized the importance of united opposition that would make an alternative government possible in Belarus. 

"The EU invites the representatives of both opposition and nomenclature to negotiate over the future of Belarus, provided they realize that the country needs changes, which can't be provided by Russia with its orientation toward the raw material economy," said Commissioner Füle. 

The Enlargement Commissioner Füle will present prospects on existing EU policy towards Belarus and a vision for the European future of Belarus at an expert forum "Transforming Belarus: Ways Ahead” organized by Carnegie Europe, the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), and the Office for a Democratic Belarus on December 7 in Brussels. 

The author is CEPI Research Assistant