Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-25-Speech-3-353"
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"en.20090325.29.3-353"2
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"Mr President, Belarus is at a crossroads.
Ladies and gentlemen, developing our relations with this neighbour located at the heart of Europe requires us to take the time to reflect on a response, including in the longer term, to the progress made by Belarus. A response that enables us to bring Belarus closer to our European family and its values, and to do this, in fact, as our President-in-Office said, the European Council took the decision last Friday to admit Belarus to the Eastern Partnership, and, more specifically, to its multilateral component, the platforms. This Partnership will provide Belarus with an opportunity to develop new support and exchange networks with all its neighbours, including on behalf of Belarusian civil society, which wants to end its isolation and take part in the forum on civil society.
With regard to Belarus’s participation in the bilateral strand of the Eastern Partnership, the text of the Commission’s proposal is unequivocal: the development of bilateral relations between the European Union and Belarus is, and will remain, dependent on the development of the political situation in the country.
Finally, in the light of the financial and economic crisis that is also seriously affecting all of our neighbours in the East, I am personally in favour of economic support measures for Belarus. An important first step has been taken by the IMF, with the active support of its European members, and that was to grant a USD 2 billion loan to tackle the immediate effects of the crisis, by which I mean putting an end to the balance of payments. The second stage should enable Belarus to gain access to EIB loans and to more substantial EBRD loans in order to fund projects linked to the trans-European networks, while also helping to diversify the country’s economic links.
At the same time, the Commission is in the process of strengthening its technical dialogues with Belarus in sectors of common interest such as energy, transport, customs, standards, and, in the longer term, the economy.
To conclude, in order to strengthen these dialogues, ladies and gentlemen, next week Parliament will adopt a resolution on Belarus, and the Commission will genuinely pay very close attention to your recommendations. I for my part sincerely hope that we continue to cooperate closely over the coming months in our assessment of the situation and in our dialogue with Belarus, its authorities and its civil society, and I hope that this first step will lead us to make an in-depth mutual commitment based on concrete progress.
We find ourselves in the wake of a Council decision confirming the temporary suspension of the visa ban until the end of the year, and on the eve of the adoption of a resolution by the European Parliament. It is time to perform an initial review of our policy on Belarus after six months of suspended sanctions – since October 2008 – and to reflect on what lies ahead for the next nine months.
Personally I am convinced that the decision taken by the European Union last October to suspend the sanctions was the right one, and, in fact, this suspension has given rise to a positive process.
Belarus has taken measures that are unquestionably along the lines of more democracy. I am thinking in particular of the return of two independent newspapers to news-stands, of the fact that even Mr Milinkevich’s organisation has finally been legalised, of the cooperation with OSCE/ODIHR on electoral law, and of the various congresses of opposition parties or NGOs – such as the Union of Poles in Belarus – that have been able to take place. Admittedly, this progress is limited and insufficient, but it is also unprecedented and, in general, we can still conclude that progress has been made.
That is why this mixed review received a mixed response from the European Union, with the balanced decision taken during the last GAERC. Suspending the sanctions for longer enables us to maintain a dialogue, just as the civil society itself expressly asked us to do, including at the forum held at the European Parliament, as recently as 4 March.
At the same time, we are holding on to the tool at our disposal, since the sanctions may be reintroduced at the end of the year if we consider that the progress made by then is insufficient, and we are going to continue our examination by paying ongoing attention to the situation on the ground with regard to whether progress has been made in the five key areas identified in the GAERC’s conclusions of last October. Furthermore, thanks to our delegation in Minsk, the Commission is playing an active part in analysing the situation on the ground.
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the European Parliament’s initiative to send a delegation of members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Belarus, which will travel to Minsk in 10 days’ time to meet with the authorities and the various parties and to get an idea of the situation on the ground.
I shall also be sending my director responsible for this region at the same time, and he will be sure to cooperate closely with the European Parliament delegation. Setting up a new dialogue on human rights with Belarus is another, appreciable step forward that will enable us to structure our demands better and to give more depth to our discussions.
The first session of this dialogue should take place in the next few days in Minsk, and the European Union will put all the issues on the table. We shall meet with members of civil society before and after this dialogue, to benefit from their expertise."@en1
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