Lukashenka’s ambassador accused EU of extremism

Belarus’s ambassador to the European Union wrote a letter to the EU leadership accusing it of “political extremism”.

As the website «European Voice», Uladzimir Syanko recollects a EU decision taken in October 2008, when the European Union declared its willingness to stop isolation of Belarus. But Ambassador Syanko forgets to mention 12 EU requirements for democratizations, formulated in 2007. None of these has been fulfilled even partially.

Lukashenka’s diplomat states the EU and Belarus successfully cooperate in areas such as energy, transport, standardisation, agriculture and the environment. He also says a human-rights dialogue was established, but hushes up deterioration in human rights situation in Belarus. Nevertheless, Syanko demands to have an equal dialogue calling systematic suppression of democratic freedoms “national specificities and features of Belarus”.

“Unfortunately, some of our partners in the EU, and especially in the European Parliament, appear unready to accept the philosophy of an equal and pragmatic approach to contacts with Belarus. They do not appear ready to show political courage and to reject the use of continuous pressure, finger-pointing and lecturing, all of which are approaches that have proven unproductive,” Ambassador Syanko writes.

Syanko charges initiators of Euronest, the Eastern Partnership Parliamentary Assembly, with acting in a provocative manner and adopting a position of political extremism. The ambassador means a Euronest position on the composition of the Belarusian delegation in the assembly that should consist of five MPs and five representatives of civil society. Syanko writes these terms are terms “discriminatory and offensive”. However, the ambassador doesn’t find offensive the fact that the elections to the “parliamentary assembly” were rigged and MPs were in fact appointed, which have led to non-recognition of the Belarusian “parliament” as a legitimate representative body.

Syanko calls the EU approach “futile and harmful”, and accuses the EU of being irresponsible and “impeding the strengthening of the independence of the young Belarusian state.”

“Not everything satisfies our partners in Brussels, but, it is important to emphasise, Belarus’s fundamental expectations of the EU are also very far from being satisfied. This is the case in almost all areas of our co-operation, from politics to economics to people-to-people contact. We are still waiting for tangible results,” the representative of the Belarusian regime finishes his letter.