Štefan Füle: This election is not better than previous one with regard to s
The European Commissioner has outlined six key aspects for estimation of the election's democracy, shared his view with regard to the progress made and informed
According to the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle, who
is to visit Minsk today, the EU wants to see a clear progress in the
democratic standards during this election. Progress in the identified
aspects will allow the EU to restore and strengthen relations with
Belarus. He will discuss this issue at the meeting with the Belarusian
Minister of Foreign Affairs Siarhej Martynau.
Štefan Füle: "I
outlined the six key aspects where the EU wants to see progress during
my previous meeting with Siarhej Martynau and Aliaksandr Luykashenka
[July 8-9, 2010 – ERB]. These are the registration of candidates,
composition of election commissions, the issue of early voting, counting
and tabulation of election results, access to media and freedom of
assembly".
According to him, there have been no progress in
some of the said aspects. Thus, if registration of candidates goes well,
there is no improvement with regard to composition of election
commissions - the fact that 1% of opposition is represented there, does
not meet the EU's expectations. According to him, access to mass media
is a complicated question for the country with a state monopoly on the
media. In addition to that, early voting remains an open question,
too.
Štefan Füle also said that the European Commission took
over the negotiations on two important aspects last Friday: visa
facilitation and readmission agreements with Belarus. Let us remind you,
the EU Foreign Ministers called on the European Commission to do so in
their decision on Belarus dated October 25.
Relevant
groups will begin work on visa facilitation and readmission agreements
in November and December, respectively, as well as the European
Parliament.
The negotiations with regard to the joint interim plan are also in progress: "The
JIP is to recompense the absense of a legal agreement between Belarus
and the EU. The plan includes suggestions on how to deepen relations
between Belarus and the EU, how to conduct reforms and modernization
process, how to develop in all the aspects, including the aspect of
human rights and democracy which is so important for us and so sensitive
for the Belarusian authorities".
Štefan Füle: "We think that strong civil society is the best basis for democracy. I would like to claim the EU's readiness to consider the variants of rendering more support to the Belarusian civil society now and in future".
The European Commissioner Štefan Füle is visiting Belarus with the representative delegation, which includes the head of the European Commission's Delegation to Ukraine and Belarus José Manuel Pinto Teixeira, the head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Belarus Jean-Eric Holzapfel, and the the head of South Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus subdivision of European Commission Foreign Affairs directorate John Kjaer.
