The EU Delegation Condemned Actions of the Belarusian Authorities Before the Freedom Day

Actions of the Belarusian authorities go contrary to the stated policy on democratization and its international obligations.

In view of recent developments actions of the Belarusian authorities are conflicting with its stated policy on democratization and its international obligations, the EU states.

Referring to the EU mission in Belarus Interfax informs that such decision has been reached by the end of the third round of the EU-Belarus coordination group meeting of April 3-4.

"In the context of recent developments the EU delegation stressed that despite calls of the international community to show restraint, the actions of the authorities including preventive arrests before and many arrests, detentions of peaceful demonstrators on March 25 had been unacceptable and indiscriminate. Such restrictions on freedom of speech and assemblies are contradicting with the declared policy on democratization and its international obligations", the EU mission's statement says.

"During all meetings the EU delegation noted that specific and irreversible steps of Belarus on promotion of universal freedoms involving freedom of speech, assemblies and mass media, as well as the rule of law and human rights, abolition of the death penalty would be the key point to build up the EU policy line towards Belarus and further relations with the country," the mission stressed.

The statement points out that the adopted EU cooperation and involvement of the civil society policy line calls on the Belarusian authorities to large-scale consultations with all interested parties and has held separate meetings with Belarusian human rights activists, representatives of the civil society and opposition movements.

"The European Union has reaffirmed its commitment to a stable, democratic and prosperous future of Belarus for the benefit of its people and will continue working with all interested parties to achieve this important goal", the EU mission's statement says.

Belarus-EU coordination group was established in 2016. Its objective is to build a structured and integrated dialogue on comprehensive bilateral interaction. The first meeting was held on 6-7 April 2017 in Brussels, the second - 16-17 November 2016 in Minsk.

As is reported, March 25 Minsk held the action dedicated to the Freedom Day. It ended with mass detentions.

It will be recalled that one of the leaders the Belarusian National Congress Mikalai Statkevich told Charter97.org about the format of the meeting with the Brussels delegation headed by Thomas Mayr-Harting, Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia in the European External Action Service. The politician called on the EU not to lend money to the Belarusian dictator.