Issue on lifting sanctions against Belarusian officials to be considered in Luxemburg

The situation in Belarus is to be considered at the meeting of the European Union foreign ministers today.

Javier Solana, EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, invited foreign minister of Belarus Syarhei Martynau to Luxemburg. It was the first similar offer since the EU imposed sanctions against the Belarusian authorities in 2006.

It should be reminded that the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation in Belarus last week. The document offers to suspend visa sanctions against some Belarusian officials, though the “parliamentary elections” were recognised unfree and non-democratic. It is suggested to lift sanctions against the officials, who are not involved in rigging the elections results.

It is expected that the persons, against whom the sanctions will be lifted, will be determined in Luxemburg today.

The sanctions (in particular, ban for entry in the EU) against 40 high-ranking Belarusian officials and Alyaksandr Lukashenka were imposed by the EU after the “presidential elections” of 2006, which failed to meet the international standards.

The “parliamentary elections” have recently been conducted in Belarus. 263 candidates run for 110 seats in the parliament. About 100 opposition representatives participated in the “elections”, but none of them got to the “parliament”.

The OSCE/ODIHR election observing mission didn’t recognise the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus free and democratic. OSCE observers noted “bad or very bad” process of vote count in 50 per cent of the cases. 40 per cent of the observers weren’t able to monitor the vote counting in full. OSCE observers recorded cases of falsification. The elections ultimately fell short of OSCE standards.