BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/10/2008

Lukashenko may come to EU summit

PHILIPPA RUNNER

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The upcoming Czech EU presidency is considering inviting autocratic Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to an extraordinary EU summit in the first half of 2009, if the country introduces pro-democratic reforms.

"It is possible that during the Czech presidency a summit with the eastern partners of the EU will be held - that means with Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. But we are not sure yet if Belarus will participate in it," Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told EUobserver.

A Belarus street protestor - geopolitics is higher up than democracy on the EU agenda for now (Photo: charter97.org)

"We would like to see Belarus there but there are some conditions - Belarus has to become a member of the European Eastern Partnership first and of course there has to be some improvement on its way to democracy."

The Eastern Partnership is a joint Polish-Swedish plan to accelerate EU integration with its post-Soviet neighbours, floated before the Russia-Georgia conflict earlier this year.

The Czech summit idea would be the first major step in the process, with the European Commission currently working on lower-level details, such as visa facilitation and free-trade deals for the six countries in question.

Prague takes over the rotating EU chair in January. Each presidency traditionally holds just two EU summits, but the current French presidency has set a strong precedent for extraordinary summits with special meetings on Georgia and the financial crisis.

The Czech Republic - which sees itself as an EU leader in promoting democratic transformation abroad - has already told Belarus opposition groups they will have a seat at the summit table, while appearing to give Mr Lukashenko a December deadline for further reforms.

"The EU summit in December will be the key point after which we will definitely decide on this summit ...its date and participants," Ms Opletalova said.

EU foreign ministers on 13 October took Mr Lukashenko off an EU visa ban list for a temporary period of six months to April 2009, stressing that the grace will not be extended if the country backslides on repression or takes the Russian line of recognising South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

At the time, Belarus neighbours Lithuania and Poland admitted the sanctions move was based on geopolitics - an attempt to "save" Belarus from absorption by Russia - rather than a response to Minsk's release of political prisoners in August. Sweden went even further by suggesting Mr Lukashenko should one day stand trial for the disappearances of four opposition activists in 1999 and 2000.

Belarus on 27 October arrested opposition activist Alexander Barazenka after he took part in street protests earlier this year, in what opposition group Charter 97 is calling a new political prisoner. A US lawyer, Emanuel Zeltser, is also being held in jail in mysterious circumstances.

US NGO Freedom House on Wednesday called for Belarus' application for an IMF stabilisation loan to be rejected on political grounds.

"No other country approaching the IMF has a record of broad scale repression that equals that of Belarus," the NGO's diretor, Jennifer Windsor, said. "Providing Belarus with a loan now would effectively reward President Lukashenko for conducting a sham election, marginalising the opposition and crushing independent media."

Source:

http://euobserver.com/24/27012

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