Categories: News
Related Articles
Briefing – EU-Belarus relations: State of play – Human rights situation and Ryanair flight diversion – 22-07-2021
The falsified presidential elections of August 2020, and the brutal crackdown against peacefully protesting Belarusians, led to the isolation of the Aliaksandr Lukashenka regime. Despite the possibility of starting dialogue with the democratic opposition and Belarusian society, Aliaksandr Lukashenka chose another path, involving continued brutal repression of the country’s citizens. The worsening human rights situation and hijacking of Ryanair flight FR 4978 provoked a response from the EU, including a ban on Belarusian air carriers landing in or overflying the EU, a major extension of the list of people and entities already subject to sanctions, and the introduction of sanctions on key sectors of the Belarusian economy. The EU policy also demonstrates a readiness to support a future democratic Belarus. In this respect, the European Commission presented the outline of a comprehensive plan of economic support for democratic Belarus, worth up to €3 billion. The European Parliament is playing an active part in shaping the EU’s response. Parliament does not recognise Lukashenka’s presidency and is speaking out on human rights abuses in Belarus. The Belarusian democratic opposition, which was awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize, is frequently invited to speak for the Belarusian people in the European Parliament.
Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP
DUP leader: Social media giants allow ‘lynch mobs’ to harass women online
Former DUP leader Arlene Foster has hit out at US giants Twitter, Facebook and Google for “washing their hands” of the “lynch mobs” harassing women in public roles online. “One of the biggest obstacles to being a woman in public…
Former Irish PM: Protection of Good Friday Agreement needs ‘hands on’ approach
Former Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, has called for a robust defence of the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. “It really needs a hands-on response and needs careful handling on all sides,” told Ahern a virtual seminar on…
Belarus opposition leader asks Finland for help
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the figurehead of the Belarus opposition currently living in exile in Lithuania, has called on Finland to take leadership and initiate roundtable talks between Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, the Belarussian civil society and also neighbouring Russia, noting that such…
Defiant Lukashenko defends plane diversion, blasts critics
A defiant President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday (26 May) defended Belarus’s diversion of a European flight and arrest of a dissident on board, lashing out at critics at home and abroad.
Responses