М.Mekel: “Belarusian politics” of the EU failed

A Deputy of the German Bundestag of the Social Democratic fraction Markus Mekel is convinced that the policy of isolation which was implemented by the European Union with regard to Belarus has failed.

The famous German politician made this statement in a Polish town Krynica, which hosted the XVIII International Economic Forum on 10-12 September.

In the course of a special meeting on the issue of providing support to democratization in Belarus, Mekel stressed that “the EU has to elaborate its own specific strategy with regard to Belarus rather than repeating the old approach. What we were doing before, i.e. the policy of isolation, did not work out”. Bundestag Deputy pointed out that today the European Union had neither “instruments of influence on the situation in Belarus”, nor “instruments to provide support to the opposition”. However he admitted that “it is our task to elaborate them”.

Deputies of the European Parliament as well as representatives of other European organizations also took part in the discussion of the Belarusian issue. The majority of them supported their German colleague’s opinion that previous actions of the European Union with regard to Belarus were “counter-productive”. In particular it concerns visa policy with regard to Belarusians that pay 60 Euro for the right to enter the EU, which is almost twice as high compared with the citizens of the neighbouring Russia and Ukraine.

Around two thousands delegates from various European countries took part in the International Economic Forum in Poland. The Official Belarusian delegation was headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Kobiakov. He held a meeting with his Polish counterpart Waldemar Pauliak. The Vice Prime Ministers discussed issues of bilateral trade and economic relations.

Source