EU assessment of Belarus election not so harsh as previous one - Russian diplomat
BRUSSELS. Sept 28 (Interfax) - The idea of reconsidering relations between the European Union and Minsk after the Belarusian parliamentary election can be given a two-way interpretation, Russia's EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told Interfax.
Chizhov said that he had seen the text of the joint statement made by EU Foreign Policy Chief Baroness Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule the next day after the elections in Belarus.
"The assessment given there was little surprising amid the general climate of relations between the EU and Belarus, although it was not so harsh as during the previous elections, or the one given by European Parliament President Martin Schulz," he said.
"Our assessment of these elections is well known. When analyzing the EU's reaction to the parliamentary elections in Belarus, I, among other aspects, paid attention to the fact that the EU represented by Ashton and Fule preferred not to act in total solidarity with the OSCE ODIHR [Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights]. Their document says that they have taken note of the ODIHR's conclusion, not more than that," Chizhov said.
The decision to include the Belarusian issue on the agenda of October's session of the European Council on Foreign Relations "is a bureaucratic procedure that is not directly linked with the elections," the Russian diplomat said.
"The thing is that the sanctions imposed on Belarus expire on October 31. That is why EU member states in this council cannot avoid discussing the issue of Belarus. But this question is practical: whether prolong these sanctions or decide to review them," he said.