Foreign Affairs Council: Press remarks by the High Representativ

Before the Council [of Foreign Affairs Ministers], the Ministers had the opportunity of receiving Ms [Sviatlana] Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition.

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https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/85514/foreign-affairs-council-press-remarks-high-representative-josep-borrell_en

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Tuesday, September 22, 2020

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Politics of Europe, Continents, Europe, In Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, Russification, Eastern Partnership, International reactions to the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and protests, Coordination Council

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Before the Council [of Foreign Affairs Ministers], the Ministers had the opportunity of receiving Ms [Sviatlana] Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition.
We consider these elections falsified, we do not recognise the results and so we do not recognise Lukashenkos legitimacy.
We do not seek to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.
We just want to support people who are asking to have a political system that allows them to elect their rulers.
We only ask for a national dialogue on how to resolve the current crisis, and for free and fair elections.
We have also discussed the review of our overall relations with Belarus and further financial support to the civil society and independent media.
Since the beginning of the year, the oil blockade has cost to Libya more than 10,000 million dollars.
Just compare this big figure with the amount of our help, which is, in the best of the cases, some hundred million dollars.
The country is losing its revenues and, at the same time, they are lacking electricity and water in the main cities.
We agreed to step up our efforts for the resumption of the political dialogue in the framework of the Berlin process.
We are not doing everything that is needed, but nobody is doing more than the European Union on that side.
As you know, the Summit and the Ministerial meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council has been delayed I am afraid - until next year.
[The Foreign Affairs Council] will have a comprehensive discussion on Russia next month.
This will be the main issue to deal with at the forthcoming European Council, where I will inform about the debates of the Foreign Affairs Council.
It has consequences for example for the participation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership or in meetings at high political level.
I will do whatever I can in order for sanctions against Belarus to be adopted at the next Foreign Affairs Council.
This is a high voltage political problem that the European Council will have to solve.
Il faut faire en sorte que a aille ensemble, de faon ce que tout le monde y trouve sa part.