European Parliament approves report of Justas Paleckis on situation in Belarus
MEPs called on the
official Minsk to respect human rights and move towards democratic
reforms to end the country's self-imposed isolation from Europe.
The
document is addressed to the European Commission, the High
Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
the Council of the EU and the member states of the European
Union.
Bear in mind that the report, prepared by Lithuanian
MEP Justas Paleckis, caused a public outcry in the first reading in
May. The representatives of the Belarusian opposition and human
rights activists protested because the report indicated an
improvement of the human rights situation in Belarus in
2012.
Paleckis responded by saying that the conclusions made
were based on the information of the Belarusian human rights
defenders. Later around 300 amendments were introduced in the report.
And in July, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European
Parliament considered it in the second reading and approved it.