Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-125"
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"en.20041027.8.3-125"2
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"Mr President, on 19 October the European Commission endorsed the conclusions of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe that the elections in Belarus on 17 October fell well short of democratic standards – they were not free and fair – and I fully support the Commission's conclusions.
In addition, it has been said that Belarus can forget about the neighbourhood policy; instead, sanctions are in the offing, as the EU has a history of being willing to respond with sanctions to violations against democracy and human rights.
A week later, the opposite view was announced by the Russian Parliament, which declared that the elections and the referendum in Belarus were fair, free, democratic and legitimate. Only eight members of the Russian Duma voted against, while 416 were in favour.
Our conclusion should be clear: the Russian Parliament has distanced itself from all democratic parliaments in the world and has also proved that the last dictator in Europe has the full backing of the Russian Duma, controlled by political forces closely linked to President Putin.
Almost at the same time, another document – the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 – was signed by the American President. This is a clear commitment to support those in Belarus who are working towards democracy: students, trade unionists, civic and religious leaders, journalists and all citizens of Belarus claiming freedom for their nation. This document provides for USD 45 million to be used to strengthen democracy in Belarus.
What then should and could the European Union – and we, the European Parliament in particular – do? A month ago here in Strasbourg I spoke about the radio for good neighbourhood project for international broadcasting to Belarus. This aims to renew cross-border broadcasting to Belarus in one radio channel, using the data resources of Radyjo Ratsyya from Belarus and the high-powered broadcasting licence of Radio Baltic Waves from Vilnius, Lithuania. The support of Commissioner Verheugen and my colleagues from this Parliament is necessary to implement this idea."@en1
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