“Lucky” dictatorship or a weak Europe?

Belarus can count itself lucky that the EU has not broken relations with it because of the endless repression against the opposition, the Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has declared.

“The Belarusian authorities must assess the fact that the country has not been thrown out of the “Eastern Partnership”, given all that they did after 19 December,” said the Polish minister. The next summit of the “Eastern Partnership” is scheduled for 29-30 September. Speaking at a meeting organized by the Brussels European Policy Centre, Sikorski made it clear that, while Lukashenko would likely not be invited to the summit, nevertheless it was possible that representatives of his regime might attend it.

“At this stage we are discussing the question concerning at what level of Belarus will be represented at the Warsaw summit; and if Lukashenko again does something very bad, then we will not invite any of them,” said Sikorski.

The Polish minister reiterated European calls for Belarus to release political prisoners and move towards democracy. If this happened, added Sikorski, the EU would be “willing to generously respond to the needs of Belarus which have arisen due to the failure of “lukanomiki”.