In a new report, MEPs call on the Belarus to release all political prisoners, while expressing great concern over the country’s subordination to Moscow, European Parliament press office reports.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a new report on EU relations with Belarus, with 49 votes in favour, 3 against with 2 abstentions. In the text, “MEPs condemn in the strongest terms the unabated repression and systematic human rights violations continuously committed by the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko against its own people”, the readout says.
MEP’s strongly condemning the “Belarusian regime’s role as an accomplice in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine” and note with great concern the rampant political, economic, “military and cultural subordination of Belarus to Moscow, rendering the country a de-facto satellite state that also hosts tactical nuclear weapons under Russian command”.
They call on the EU “not to recognise any agreements made by Lukashenko and Russia that cede the country’s sovereignty against the will of the Belarusian people”.
The report also concludes that the recent arrival of Wagner Group fighters in Belarus creates new potential security risks for Ukraine as well as for Belarus’ EU neighbours and the EU as a whole, with MEPs reiterating their demand to put the paramilitary force on the EU’s terrorist list. They call for tougher EU sanctions against Minsk.
Call for international arrest warrant for Lukashenko. “Belarus is responsible for damage caused to and crimes committed in Ukraine, MEPs point out, including through the regime’s role in the illegal transfers of children”, the statement reads. The report therefore calls on the EU institutions and member states to take all necessary steps at international level to enable the criminal prosecution of those Belarusian political and military leaders responsible for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
