European Parliament doesn't recognize Lukashenka's “elections”

Members of the European Parliament think the Belarusian authorities ignore calls of the international community.

The European Parliament does not recognize the new composition of the “parliament” of Belarus, says the resolution adopted by MEPS at the plenary sitting in Strasbourg on Friday, RIA Novosti learnt from a representative of the EP press service. “MEPs stressed that as the Belarusian parliament lacks democratic legitimacy, it cannot be recognized,” he told the news agency.

According to him, MEPs expressed their support of representatives of Belarusian civil society and opposition and supported the idea of liberalization of the visa regime for Belarusians. MEPs think the Belarusian authorities ignore calls of the international community that leads to further isolation of the country.

They think it can be proved by the facts that no opposition members gained parliamentary seats, political prisoners still remain in jails and Belarus-EU relations deteriorated in late February 2012, when the EU extended sanctions against the Belarusian authorities for human rights violations and Minsk, in response, recommended the ambassadors of Poland and the EU to leave the country “for consultations”.

The European Union recalled all ambassadors of the EU countries accredited in Belarus and extended the list of Belarusian officials and entities subject to sanctions. Twelve individuals and 29 companies, said by the EU to have relation to human rights violations in the country, were put on the blacklist.

The EU blacklist includes 243 individuals and 32 companies that are subject to a visa ban and assets freeze. The EU-Belarus relations aggravated again in August, after the Swedish Ambassador was expelled from Minsk. The EU criticized the recent “parliamentary elections” in Belarus, which Brussels thinks failed to comply with international democratic standards.