EU holds back in Poland-Belarus row
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Left-wing MEPs have blocked the European Parliament from passing a motion condemning Belarus for the increasing harassment of its Polish minority.
Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski today lashed out at his peers, suggesting the leftwing group were afraid of angering the EU's former-Soviet neighbours. "Frankly, I think this was based on political interests, to avoid irritating Lukashenko - or perhaps to avoid irritating Moscow,” he said.
Yesterday in Brussels, EU foreign ministers discussed deteriorating Polish-Belarus relations following arrests last week of 40 activists from the Union of Poles in Belarus as they were on their way to a rally in the west of the country. Court cases are already under way to confiscate property owned by the union.
Analysts say Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has long been wary of the union that claims to represent the country's 400,000 ethnic Poles in Belarus. In fact he oversaw the creation of a rival pro-government Polish union in 2005, which is loyal to the Belarusian president.
Leader of the independent Union of Poles in Belarus Andzelika Borys is in Brussels today to meet with EU leaders to discuss a response by the 27-nation bloc to what she claims is the systematic “repression of the Polish minority in Belarus”.
EU foreign ministers yesterday did not recommend any sanctions. This stance is supported, at present, by the Polish government.
“We have not called for sanctions, but may change our mind in the near future,” explained Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski.
The row over the Polish minority may damage slowly improving relations between Belarus and the EU. Brussels has been trying to encourage Minsk to improve its human rights record and has tried to incorporate the country in its Eastern Partnership programme, which aims to give aid and technical support to ex-Soviet countries democratise and develop economically.
