EP to discuss Belarusian situation on March 14

The European Parliament will hold a debate on the situation in Belarus at a plenary session in Strasbourg on March 14.

According to the agenda on the EP website, the Belarusian issue is to be heard alongside with other themes from 3 to 9 pm CET, BelaPAN reports.

Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is expected to made a statement.

A resolution is expected to be adopted after the debate. Voting on the resolution is scheduled for March 15.

Vice Speaker of the European Parliament Jacek Protasiewicz said last week the Belarusian issue would not be discussed at the parliamentary session which starts on March 12.

<>i“We decided to adopt the resolution on Belarus in two weeks, during the session in Brussels,” Protasiewicz said in an interview to Radio Svaboda.

The EP Vice Speaker said the conflict between Belarus and the EU escalated to a degree “when the only step remains to the factual break of diplomatic relations – asking Belarusian ambassadors in the EU to return to Belarus for consultations and thus limiting the diplomatic relations to the level that currently exists between Minsk and Washington.”

“We cannot rule out such a possibility, but we've decided to give some time to think to Minsk, because it was Minsk that started it all. Maybe Minsk will sober up during these two weeks. We do not want to isolate Belarus, but we want Minsk to do some things that are important for us. Today it is the release of political prisoners,” Protasiewicz said.

On February 27, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers took a decision to add 21 individuals to the list of Belarusians banned from entering the EU. On February 28, the Belarusian authorities recommended the head of the EU Delegation to Belarus Maira Mora and Poland's ambassador Leszek Szerepko “to return to their capitals for consultations and to convey to their leadership a firm position of the Belarusian Side on inadmissibility of pressure and sanctions". In response, all EU countries recalled their ambassadors from Minsk.

The EU leaders called on the EU Council at a summit in Brussels on March 2 to take further measures in relation to Belarus. Participants of the summit expressed their serious concern about the ongoing deterioration of the situation in the county.

They welcomed the decision of the EU Council to extend the list of individuals subject to EU visa restrictions and economic sanctions due to their involvement in human rights abuses and crackdown on the opposition and civil society in Belarus and supporting or benefiting from the Lukashenka regime.