Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-026"
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"en.20040914.3.2-026"2
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"Mr President, first and foremost, I should like to say that I am in complete agreement with the analysis which the Commissioner gave a moment ago. Although they may be new neighbours, we are talking about an old problem, one that has been around since 1996, when we, the European Union, first got into an argument with President Lukashenko, the key figure in Belarus. The parliamentary elections of 17 October are around the corner and it is important for us now to turn our attention to the situation in that country. A referendum has also been announced about a possible third term in office for the President. I was fortunate enough to act as chairman of this Parliament’s delegation in Belarus for five years and we have had bad experiences with elections in that country in the past.
On two occasions, a parliamentary troika of this Parliament, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, had to declare the country’s elections unlawful, and I fear that this will now happen again. It appears once again from all the reports I have received about the run-up to the elections that the opposition is being sabotaged, the opposition candidates are being thwarted and the media are being influenced in an improper manner. That is why it is also important that now, with the elections more than a month away, we in this Parliament should send a message about what we expect, in the hope that we do not need to declare the elections unlawful again. Earlier this year, we made an attempt to breathe new life into the troika of the three parliamentary institutions in order to get it up and running in time for the elections in Belarus, and this House, in particular, was hindered from playing its part, and I personally was declared more or less
in that country. It follows that this problem should be solved before this House can send a delegation to act as observers in the elections at all.
We want the opposition to be given the chance to conduct a campaign in a proper manner. In addition, we want the candidates to be given the freedom to do what they want. The use of government resources to sabotage the opposition and civil society must stop. This change must go hand in hand with an improvement in the climate, which also entails more freedom for trade unions and academics. There are countless examples of how trade unions are being manipulated and infiltrated. Academic institutions trying to work independently are being closed down either temporarily or outright. The flow of subsidies intended to promote freedom in that country is being cut off. Only when all the above changes have happened will we perhaps be able to say, after 17 October, that improvements have finally been made, and that there is at last room for the European Union again to make relations, which have been frozen since 1996, somewhat more open, and to develop more contacts with that country. As I already said, this is possible only if the referendum is cancelled.
I regard what President Lukashenko is now trying to achieve via a referendum, one in which the population will undoubtedly again be manipulated in all kinds of ways, as some kind of constitutional
. To guarantee a third term in office would be a step in the direction of a system which cannot be described as other than authoritarian, as is already the case. We must endeavour to ensure that Europe’s last dictatorship, which is what we generally tend to call these, is brought to an end, and that on that basis, we can actually establish a new neighbourliness policy with that country. I hope that the elections will be a step in the direction of Europe, but I fear that they will rather be a step in the direction of a yet more authoritarian system. I share the Commissioner’s pessimism about this development."@en1
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