Council of Europe will discuss extending sanctions against Lukashenka

The situation in Belarus in on the agenda of today’s session of the Council of Europe.

Apart from that the foreign ministers of the European Union at the meeting in Luxemburg will consider toughening of the sanctions against Syria and Iran, the relations with Egypt, situation in Georgia, events in Mali and the outcomes of the EU-China summit, Interfax reports.

The European Union’s assessment of the parliamentary elections in Belarus on 23 September and in Georgia on 1 October is completely opposite which entails completely different EU’s policy towards these countries. Council of the EU will adopt separate resolutions on each of them.

In the EU’s opinion, expresses earlier in a special statement, “Belarus missed an opportunity again to hold elections according to international standards” and they were held with general beckground of repressions and intimidation.

“As not all the political prisoners in Belarus were released, none of them was exonerated, and the situation with human rights, rule of law and observation of democratic principles didn’t improve”, the EU will extend the existing sanctions until 31 October 2013.

243 natural and 32 legal persons, including Aliaksandr Lukashenka, are in the “black list” with prohibition to enter the EU and freeze of their European assets. At the same time the EU supports the civil society organizations and independent media in Belarus.