Former Head of the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia: Assistance to Independent Media of Belarus Is the Main Objective

The West does not believe that Lukashenka will change.

The former foreign minister of Slovakia Pavel Demesh spoke of it in the interview to Belsat during the conference "Autocratic Challenge for the European Project: Things to Be and Not to Be Done", which took place on May 25, Warsaw. The event with participation of leading experts from Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany was organized by the Charter 97 Fund and took place in the framework of the project "Eurasian Challenge for Eastern Europe" with support of the Visegrad Group fund.

- It looks like the EU has completely changed its approach and strategy towards Belarus and Aliaksandr Lukashenka. What could you say about it?

- Belarus is one of countries the EU has had problems with. First of all because Belarus is the country with a typical regime and it made it out of the Council of Europe.

The EU's leaders said the policy of sanctions would make Belarus create a more liberal, democratic and open environment. It did not work. Therefore, the European leaders decided to drop sanctions, considering that new relationships on political, economic, social, and economic levels would lead to situation normalization in the country.

I guess events in Ukraine became the turning point which changed the approach to Belarus. Geopolitical changes in post-Soviet countries are a great challenge. I believe this is the main cause why the European Union has changed its tactics.

- The approach has been changed, not the situation in Belarus. Do you think the EU's policy has failed?

-I suppose it's hard to explain to the Belarusian people and, first of all, democratic forces in the country, which have been trying to make a difference over years, that Belarus has become more European. The fact that the European approach, not the regime, has changed, is, in my opinion, some kind of weakness of the European position towards the Belarusian regime. I think Lukashenka is a very nimble politician who is teetering between Russia and the European Union.

The arguments used by European leaders to lift sanctions were not strong enough to deliver the important message about civil liberties, human rights, political prisoners and their rehabilitation.

I am a Slovak, a resident of the European Union, I know what a tough dilemma is to develop relations with the EU. But the lifting sanctions does not reflect changes in Belarus, it reflects changes in the relations between Russia and its nearby neighbours.

- Belarus is to take parliamentary elections in the autumn. Will the West take any changes if elections go the same course (there will be frauds)? Will sanctions be introduced again?

-All elections, including presidential ones in 2010, which ended with mass protests and beating, as well as imprisonment for people and candidates for the presidency, were classified by international observers from the OSCE as falling short of international standards. Now we can say that future parliamentary elections will not meet standards. There are no equal conditions for all candidates.

I think that final statements of European leaders and the international community will be almost the same. Perhaps, they say that there were no beating or arrests, but everyone now agrees: these elections, as I say ironically, "made in Belarus".

- Do you think Europe understands that Lukashenka depends on Russia? Or does it believe in his self-reliance?

Europe and European leaders do not believe that Lukashenka will change. The nature of your regime - an autocratic system - does not change. Regardless of the country is under sanctions or not. These are geopolitical realities. And second, the European Union is going weak. Next month we will have a referendum about the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the evolution of the EU. When the EU is experiencing severe political, economic challenges, people can change or try to change the situation in other countries. Belarus is a very important country in terms of geopolicy. This is a country which lies between Russia and the European Union.

The EU keeps its fingers crossed for Belarus, but it is not naive to believe Lukashenka will change all of a sudden. People do not believe into fast changes in Belarus. We seeking opportunities how to mend fences with your country, so people could travel more, young people could study and businessmen could do business.

Everyone understands that Belarus teeters between Russia and the West. The key objective is to make country stable and could have its own political evolution so that it could become more European.

- Will the West continue its assistance to the civil society in Belarus?

- Assistance to independent media, civil society and the youth is the main objective. Particular EU countries try to build as much as possible relations with your country. Media is one of the most important objectives for which assistance is to be expected.