Europe is prepared to love Belarus, but still does not know how

On Saturday the European Union leaders agreed to strengthen the relations with Belarus after the authorities there released political prisoners and refused to respond to the demand of Moscow to recognize the independence of the rebellous Georgian autonomous regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

"They have made an important decision to release political prisoners ... We would like to reward them for such behavior" - said the EU Commissioner for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana, while speaking with reporters in the French Avignon, where the European leaders gathered at an informal meeting .

The EU and the U.S. refused to issue visas to senior representatives of the Belarusian authorities after Alexander Lukashenko won the presidential elections in 2006 as a result of falsification of the results in the view of Western observers. Western countries outraged that Lukashenko ordered to close the independent media and to throw in jail his political opponents.

However in August the authorities released Sergey Parsyukevich and Andrey Kim, the last two of the political prisoners.

EU Commissioner for foreign policy issues Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that it is time to resume political dialogue with Belarus, where the parliamentary elections will be held on September 28.

She proposed to invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus to meet with his counterparts in Brussels on September 15, as well as to reduce the cost of visas for citizens of this country going to the EU.

"I call upon for greater openness, perhaps, for assistance to them in obtaining visas," - Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in the couloirs in the course of the meeting of the European leaders.

As EU officials, Ferrero-Waldner and Solana had telephone conversations with the representatives of the Belarusian government in the past few weeks.

"We would also like to see these elections strengthening this more open-minded position of Belarusians ... I support my Polish colleague, who said that we should reduce the cost of visas”, said Ferrero-Waldner.

Neither Ferrero-Waldner, nor Solana raised the issue of lifting sanctions against Belarus, that, in addition to the restrictions on traveling to the EU Member States, included the abolition of trade privileges for Belarus, that it could benefit from as a country neighbouring with the EU states.

In the mean time representatives of the European authorities argue that the EU could lift the sanctions already in October if it recognizes as fair the results of the parliamentary elections in Belarus.

Belarus, together with other Russian allies had a chilly attitude to the news regarding the penetration of Russian troops into the territory of Georgia to provide support to Tshinvala and had not recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia despite of the insistence of Moscow.

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