Insight
Is the time ripe for the EU to rethink its relations with Belarus? by Khrystyna Parandii 24 February 2020
The EU’s policy towards Belarus has been unambitious. Although Moscow’s recent push for Belarus-Russia integration may open new opportunities for EU engagement, rewards may be slow to appear. For much of the last 25 years, the EU has viewed Belarus as an aberrant European state – little more than an appendage of Russia, with a woeful record of political oppression and human rights abuses. As a result, the EU’s engagement with Minsk has been limited. Belarus has remained closely allied with Russia, though occasionally ready to flirt with the West when Moscow’s embrace has become too tight. But Russia’s recent pressure on Belarus to deepen their integration may prompt Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to look for new partnerships as a way of avoiding a ‘merger’. Is this an occasion for the EU to adopt a more ‘geopolitical’ approach to the country? What is new for the EU in Belarus-Russia relations? Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994, three years after the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union. His ever-tightening grip on power has led to a lengthy stand-off with the West. Since 1997, Belarus has been subject to various forms of EU sanctions in response to recurrent human rights violations, fraudulent elections and political repression. But EU-Belarus relations have thawed in recent years. Belarus demonstrated to the West that it could play a constructive role in the region by hosting peace talks for the Donbas conflict, following Russia’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine. It is also the only country in the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative (covering Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) without a territorial conflict. The EU benefits from Belarus being a stable neighbour, even though it is not democratic. Lukashenko’s release of the last political prisoners in 2016 prompted the EU to lift its sanctions, except for an arms embargo and targeted measures against four individuals connected to the unsolved disappearances of two opposition politicians, a businessman and a journalist in 1999 and 2000. Since then, the EU and Belarus have concluded visa facilitation and readmission agreements, and resumed their human rights dialogue. The EU has increased its financial assistance. But despite these efforts to CER INSIGHT: Is the time ripe for the EU to rethink its relations with Belarus? 24 February 2020
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