European Parliament Proposes to Expand List of Belarusian Officials Restricted to Travel Abroad :: Charter'97 :: News

Today late in the night at the session of the European parliament in Strasbourg the draft resolution on Belarus is to be discussed. The day before, on September 27, this document was accomodated with all parliamentary factions, disseminate among the deputies, the BelaPAN informs with a reference to the Belarusian service of radio Liberty.

In the draft resolution regret over constant deterioration of the general political situation in Belarus is expressed. “If the Belarusian authorities cannot improve the situation with the freedom of expression, association and religion, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European parliament are to start procedure of expansion of the list of Belarusian officials for whom entry to the EU countries is banned, and the procedure of freezing the assets of the Belarusian authorities abroad,” the document reads.

The authors of the resolution hail efforts of the European Commission in launching independent bilingual radio broadcasting for Belarus, underlining importance of “high-quality and truthful information for the Belarusian audience”.

The document contains demands to the EU leadership to spread out radio broadcasting initiatives, and to support independent Belarusian mass media and NGOs. At the same time, it is proposed to create a barrier in the way of “financing pseudo-public associations by Europe”.

The creators of the resolution also call upon the EU to support democratically elected leadership of the Union of Poles in Belarus and other NGOs persecuted by the authorities.

In addition, the EU leadership is proposed to discuss the “Belarusian question” with the Russian government, in order to “define common responsibility for development of democracy in Belarus”. The EU member countries are offered to start procedure of issuing free visas to Belarusian citizens.