Maira Mora: 3 more people to be added on EU black list

EU Ambassador to Belarus Maira Mora said it at the conference Strategies for the Future Policy towards Belarus held in Vilnius now.

Maira Mora: “The Council will most likely decide to prolong the existing sanctions. They are also planning to add three more people on the list. 13 people and 5 enterprises will be removed from the black list. However, the black list is unlikely to be abolished.”

Mora did not say the names of the three people. The EU should announce its official decision by October 31.

The EU has no reason to abolish the existing restrictions now as the Belarusian authorities demand, the EU Ambassador noted.

Maira Mora: “Besides having political prisoners, Belarus is the only European country that has not imposed a moratorium on the death penalty yet. Civil activists are being constantly persecuted – the authorities pay attention to every single protest action and stop them immediately.”

It all means that nothing has changed in the EU-Belarus relations, Maira Mora stressed. The official Minsk has preserved the policy of critical interaction in the relations with the EU. The civil society is a different issue.

Maira Mora: “The European Union has increased and expanded the support of the Belarusian civil society in the past few years.  The Launching European Dialogue on Modernisation with Belarus is one of the interaction channels. It has the potential to become a channel of interaction with the Belarusian society and the authorities.”

However, the Belarusian authorities are not responding to this opportunity of interacting with their own citizens, the ambassador noted. They are working with the Belarusian MFA and civil society to start this dialogue in the future.

But the official Minsk does not wish to support the initiatives of the European Union, Mora said. She mentioned the idea to decrease the cost of Schengen visas for Belarusians. The suggestion was made two years ago and the Belarusian authorities have not responded to it so far.

Nevertheless, some small EU projects are a success in Belarus, Maira Mora said. It may mean that Belarus, following Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, may experience a sudden positive change in the relations with the EU.

“I am hoping that the Belarusian issue will be dominant at the EaP summit in Riga in two years,” EU Ambassador to Belarus Maira Mora wished.

Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk