Why didn’t EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner go to Belarus?

A visit of EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner may have been called off because of the latest events in Minsk – new political prisoners, dispersals of peaceful demonstrations, and suicide of the human rights activist.

The Belarusian government and EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner have arranged to delay her visit to Minsk.

According to the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affaires, the visit is scheduled for the middle of April. The EU commissioner planed to pay a visit to Belarus on March 12–13.

EU commissioner’s spokesperson Christiane Hohmann said the visit was postponed “due to scheduling problems”.

The fact that a visit of the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner could be predicted, political observer Raman Yakauleuski told BelaPAN.

According to Yakauleuski, this diplomatic step could have been expected after Ferrero-Waldner’s speech in London on March 9. The European commissioner called on Minsk to carry out “more political reforms” and described actions by the Belarusian authorities as “two steps forward, one step back”.

The expert also noticed some “scepticism about the tempo of the Belarusian-European dialogue expressed by Berlin and Warsaw”. Yakauleuski thinks now Europe is not so optimistic about the development of the bilateral relations, as it expected Minsk to make more steps forward.

Yakauleuski drews attention to the fact that reasons for Lukashenka’s sudden visit to Armenia, which also a potential participant of the EU’s Eastern Partnership program, are unclear in the context of the planned visit of Ferrero-Waldner to Minsk.

Besides, the expert doesn’t exclude that calls of the Belarusian opposition have been heard by Brussels.

Postponing of the visit of EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner, scheduled for March 12–13, may be caused by contradictions on the Belarusian issue between the EU countries, politologist Yury Drakakhrust told in an interview to BelaPAN.

“Europe is actively discussing on ways of cooperation with Belarus and on a format of its participation in the Eastern Partnership program, on whether Lukashenka should be invited for a Eastern Partnership summit in Prague,” the expert said.

According to him, B. Ferrero-Waldner said some days ago that Belarus needed to carry out more political reforms to become closer to the European Union. “In my view, this statement means that the steps, made by Minsk, are not enough. And some steps in the opposite direction have shocked Brussels,” Y. Drakakhrust said. Among such steps he called “brutal dispersal” of two youth demonstrations in February, arrest of businessmen in Vaukavysk, and suicide of human rights activist Yana Palyakova.

“I don’t exclude that Brussels has received a signal from Minsk showing intention of Belarus to recognize independence of Georgian breakaway republics,” the politician said. “And the EU had clearly said that Belarus will fall out of the European context if it does so.”

Y. Drakakhrust supposes that the Council of EU Foreign Ministers will probably take a decision on further suspension of visa bans on Belarusian officials at its session next week. However, a final decision on Belarus’s participating in the Eastern Partnership program hasn’t been taken yet, the expert stressed.