Belarus: EU to Hold Extraordinary Meeting

Today, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the situation in Belarus, the European Parliament’s website reports.

“Large-scale civil protests against the Lukashenka regime continue after the presidential election on 9 August, which the European Union considers neither free nor fair,” the statement says.

The committee members will discuss the actions to be taken by the EU to support the democracy and freedoms in Belarus and “re-evaluate the cooperation with Minsk, in particular, in the Eastern Partnership framework.”

To recap, during the protests after the 9 August presidential election, more than 7,500 people were detained in Belarus and tortured by security forces in prisons. More than 350 Belarusians appeared in the hospitals; five people died. The election commission member who refused to sign the election protocol was also found dead in Belarus.

Natalia Tolub