Andrei Yahorau: The EU is disabled to realize its pia desideria

The European Parliament

From discussing the results of the parliamentary election campaign in Belarus, which is to be held on October 11-12 at the European Parliament, nothing should be expected.

This opinion was expressed by a political analyst Andrei Yahorau, director of the Centre for European Transformation, in a conversation with the EuroBelarus Information Service.

"This is a fairly regular event accompanying the electoral campaign in Belarus, when the Belarusan political scene representatives of democratic parties are invited to the various European structures in order to make some reports about what has happened in Belarus. It is always a rather formal event on the exchange of information, the official position to clarify the situation, nothing more", said the expert.

According to him, such activities cause no consolidation processes. "The Europeans do not influence the decision of the issue of consolidation in Belarus in this case, besides the things they are doing as it is. For example, while establishing a framework for the dialogue on modernization, Europe would like to see a subject which it would be possible to talk with inside the country. Europe would see this subject as a consolidated alliance of democratic political parties and rather broadly represented civil society subjects. And in this case, the European Union could relate to what is going on in Belarus, in a more serious way", considers Andrei Yahorau.

However, in his view, the problem of interaction and influence of the EU instruments in Belarus stumbles upon the fact that in Belarus, there is no subject and no coherent strategy that the United Europe would be able to back. "And as far as there is no such strategy, there is essentially nothing to support for the European Union. Such a tragic mismatch comes out: the EU would be ready and would enhance any strategic actions of the democratic forces in Belarus, but in view of the fact that these are not consolidated and do not have a joint strategy, the EU is disabled to realize its pia desideria", explained the political analyst.

He pointed to the fact that the format of the meeting involves political opposition exactly in the form of political actors. "And, of itself, it is not rather adequate to the actual situation as political parties are indistinguishable from civil society organizations in essence of their actions and respective capabilities, resources, etc. They are in the same situation", said the expert.

In his view, artificial segmentation of Belarusan civil society on political and non-political subjects by European politicians is irrelevant to the tasks that are to be addressed by the entire democratic community of our country. "This segmentation creates a very difficult situation for our civil society because currently in Europe, very important issues for our country are being discussed, but these are being discussed with politicians who, in principle, can’t influence the situation. And the very civil society is excluded from discussing these issues, conversations, making any decisions. Although it has a very clearly pronounced position on what has happened during the election campaign, and in what direction to move on", said Andrei Yahorau.