Europe makes condition for Belarus – free elections

• 9.07.2010, 17:40

There’s no information what the EU Commissioner and Lukashenka discussed behind closed doors, but Stefan Fule made some principal statements at a press conference.

The upcoming presidential elections in Belarus should fully comply with democratic standards; further relations between Belarus and the EU will much depend on observance of these norms, Stefan Fule, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy , thinks, Interfax news agency reports.

Fule added that when determining further ways of cooperation with Belarus, the European Union will monitor such areas as “political prisoners, freedom of assembly, and freedom of press, capital punishment and fulfillment of the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations”. “Changes in all these key positons will be a progress on the way to democracy,” the Commissioner said.

At the same time, Fule refused to say what issues had been discussed at his meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The EU Commissioner noted the question of political prisoners had been raised several times during his visit to Minsk.

A joint interim plan for a constructive EU-Belarus dialogue in policy and economy is to be submitted for consideration of the European Union in early autumn.