EU: Former Political Prisoners Must Be Vindicated

Representative of the EU in Belarus Andrea Wiktorin stated that at the round table in Minsk, the Belarus' service of the Polish radio reports.

Wiktorin stressed that the human rights issue was of great importance for bilateral relations. In addition, the EU will continue to turn to the issue of vindication of former political prisoners.

According to her, Brussels pays a great attention to future "parliamentary campaign", registration issues of political parties and public organizations, as well as to the problem of the death penalty.

Wiktorin says despite rectification of relations with the Belarusian government the EU keeps supporting the Belarusian society.

"I know many people are concerned about our increased ties with state organizations. But I'd like to say that we develop spheres which will affect ordinary people. We do not spend money planned for activity of the civil society on other spheres. We keep providing with our assistance. Hereafter we will develop projects together with the civil society," the head of the EU representative office stated.

She adds that the EU should develop a communication programme with Belarus and the Belarusian society.

"Hereafter we start preparations for the programme of 2017-2020 years. It will imply basics for our interaction for the next few years and it will be done together with representatives of the civil society," Wiktorin says.

David McAllister: Fair Election Is Needed

Lifting the EU's sanctions on Belarus is an opportunity for Aliaksandr Lukashenka and the Belarusian government to do with a good grace and conduct a fair parliamentary election, David McAllister, deputy head of the European People's Party, stated on May 16 at the round table "European Neighbourhood Policy - Expectations of Belarus", BelaPAN informs.

"It was not easy to decide upon lifting sanctions, but we decided to give one more chance to the Belarusian government," he said.

According to McAllister, despite other problems (migration crisis, possible secession of Great Britain from the European Union), the EU is still "concerned about events in Belarus." "The EU keeps track of activity of the Belarusian government and whether it complies with our values," McAllister said.

He notes that the EU would like to see a strong opposition in Belarus. However, he stressed that the opposition should have had a clear reformation programme. The European deputy also declares the necessity to provide for equal conditions for current participants of the parliamentary election.

"You may have the government without an opposition, but there is no democracy without strong opposition," he stressed.

Sandra Kalniete, deputy of the European Parliament, notes that upcoming parliamentary election in Belarus will be "a turning point for almost everything." "We do not expect a miracle, but we'd like to see positive shifts", she said.

Kalniete noted that the European Parliament would like to conduct an active dialogue with the Belarusian "parliament", however, it is impossible, unless it is recognized a legitimate one. If, in her words, the election is positively evaluated by the ODIHR/OSCE, the new Belarusian parliament will be able to participate in work of a parliamentary assembly of the Eastern Partnership as well.

She also urged the Belarusian opposition not to split and do their best to promote their popularity in the society.