Belarusian-European relations

Belarus Retains Death Penalty, Promotes UN Reform – Belarus Foreign Policy Digest

In the first half of March, the EU’s top human rights official came to Minsk to talk President Alexander Lukashenka into introducing a temporary moratorium on the death penalty. The Belarusian authorities are very willing to discuss human rights with...

28 December 2015

EU to Double Assistance to Belarus – Belarus Foreign Policy Digest

Belarus’ relations with Europe have found a new lease of life after the suspension of the EU sanctions against Minsk. The EU’s intends to double its financial assistance to Belarus in 2016. The removal of sanctions allowed Belarus’ foreign minister...

12 November 2013

Is Europe Losing Interest in Belarus?

On 24-26 October the political directors of the Swedish and Polish foreign ministries – Torbjorn Sohlstrom and Jaroslaw Bratkiewicz – visited Minsk. They came instead of their bosses Karl Bildt and Radoslav Sikorski, who preferred to go to Chisinau, Kyiv and Tbilisi. This shows Europeans'...

7 November 2013

New Poll: Belarusians Became More Pro-European

At the end of October the Office for Democratic Belarus (ODB) published the results of a public opinion poll entitled “Belarus and Eastern Partnership: National and European Values”. It shows that the attitude of Belarusians toward EU year by year...

28 December 2012

Political Overview of 2012: Diplomatic Wars, Sanctions and Elections

Belarus started the year 2012 in a rather bad shape. Alexander Lukashenka has been occupying his post for almost 18 years. A dozen political prisoners remained behind the bars. Relations with the West were worse than ever before. The opposition...