If there won’t be changes, sanctions would be automatically renewed in half a year

The decision of the European Union to proceed from the policy of isolation to the policy of the dialogue right after the undemocratic “parliamentary elections” has been evaluated ambiguously by the Belarusian opposition. The position of the European deputies was ambiguous too.

At the conference “Belarus after elections” organised on the initiative of German-Belarusian parliamentary group of Bundestag, and organisation “European Exchange-6000” took place with participation of parliamentarians, representatives of the German Foreign Office and non-governmental organisations, diplomats with the experience of work in Belarus, OSCE representatives, as well as representatives of the Belarusian democratic forces, Deutsche Welle informs.

No special decisions would be needed for renewal of sanctions

Opening the discussion, a representative of the faction Alliance '90/The Greens and the deputy chairman of the Belarusian-German parliamentary group Marieluise Beck stated that the decision to proceed from the policy of isolation to the policy of a dialogue right after the recent parliamentary elections had been evaluated ambiguously by a part of the Belarusian opposition. The head of the foundation “Science and politics” Rainer Lindner said that the position of the European deputies was ambiguous as well: during the debates concerning lifting visa sanctions for half a year for a number of Belarusian officials, some European parliamentarians were totally against that, saying there are no grounds for that.

Explaining the decision of the EU, participants of the discussion many times emphasized that lifting sanctions is in many respects a formal move by the EU. It was laid down as a condition for Lukashenka to release political prisoners. And he has done that. It would be injudicious to leave this move without response. If no real changes would follow from the official Minsk, sanctions will be renewed automatically in half a year. And as underlined by Rainer Lindner, no special sessions would be needed for that. Besides, Rainer Lindner asked to remember about the wording of the European Union done on the results of the last election campaign in Belarus: “a parliament with insufficient legitimization”.

Observers saw just a segment of political scene

The topic of observation over the elections was continued by Ambassador Walter Siegel, a political analyst of the OSCE mission on observation over the elections, noting that observers could not see the complete political scene, but just a segment of it. The OSCE is giving the same recommendations to Belarus the fifth time, and an answer should be found, whether there is a change to be heard. Walter Siegel, reminding that “there have been mistakes, and Lukashenka stated that he is ready to work on them”. “There are certain steps done by the Belarusian government, which prove the interest to the dialogue. The dialogue is open. And we hope that we would be able to move forward on this path”.

Visa question and mass media freedom

Facilitation of the visa regime for common Belarusians, especially against the background of lifting the visa sanctions against officials is one of the central issues of the discussion held in Bundestag. Many participants from the German side agree that the present visa policy towards Belarusians is discriminative. Marieluise Beck informed that a group of the deputies of the Bundestag addresses the German Foreign Office on this issue regularly. As said by her, “the federal government hides behind the EU and says that we cannot encourage this dictator. But as a result the society which suffers from this dictator is punished, while trips, meetings with the open society could encourage Belarusians”.

It is worth mentioning that a source in the German Foreign Office indirectly confirmed the words of Marieluise Beck, referring to the fact that after enlargement of the Schengen zone decision to issue a visa depends on all the states that are participants of the Schengen treaty. But as it has been underline by the source, in the near future the German Foreign Office will discuss a possibility to cut down the cost of visas for Belarusians to 35 Euro. The same source asks a rhetorical question, why Belarusian citizens are treated worse then Russian or Ukrainian citizens. At the same time, he noted that there are no “legal conditions” for introducing a visa-free regime.

Participants of the discussion paid attention to the situation with the freedom of mass media. As stated by the former head of the OSCE mission in Belarus Hans-Georg Wieck, it is possible to imagine some kind of democratization without any oppositional parties, but it is impossible to imagine one without free mess media. And the next concrete condition for continuation of the dialogue with the official Minsk should be liberation of mass media from the total dictate of the state.

Discussion without elation, but with sober evaluation

One of the participants of the discussion, a human rights activist Ales Byalatski said the discussion was important for evaluation of the situation and for prospects of relations between the European structures – the EU, the Council of Europe, the German government and Belarus: “there was a constructive conversation about a possible program of concrete actions of the European structures aimed at democratization of the situation in Belarus. There were no ungrounded delights concerning actions of the Belarusian government, but there was a sober evaluation of the complicated situation we have in Belarus for today.

Rainer Lindner noted that the discussion in the Bundestag took place timely. In addition to other things, right now it is very important to explain: visa sanctions alleviation does not mean denial to support oppositional forces. “The most important thing is that after the election we met with the OSCE representatives, independent observers representatives in Belarus and certainly Bundestag representatives and discussed the situation after the elections, the decision of the EU and further steps in the bilateral relations, a monitoring of the actions we are going to make,” Rainer Lindner said.