Belarus faces tougher EU sanctions

By David Cronin

Date: 23/03/06

The European Union will examine whether existing sanctions on Belarus should be tightened following the country's "fundamentally flawed" presidential elections, the Austrian presidency of the EU has said.

Austrian officials said the EU might consider punishing "those responsible for the violations of electoral standards".

In November 2004, EU governments agreed to limit ministerial contact with Belarus because of President Alexander Luka-shenko's authoritarianism.

He won a third five-year term in last weekend's poll, with almost 83% of the vote. Austria said, however, that it deplored the arbitrary use of state power during the election campaign, the intimidation of opposition candidates and their supporters, as well as voting irregularities. It also condemned barriers placed by Minsk preventing MEPs and representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from monitoring the election.

German Green MEP Elisabeth Schroedter, one of the deputies denied entry to Belarus, said that the EU should support the opposition. She described Luka-shenko's main rival Alexander Malinkevich as "a leader who could respectfully change the country".

l A seven-strong delegation of MEPs will be supervising parliamentary elections in Ukraine on 26 March. The leader of the delegation, Polish Socialist Marek Siwiec, expressed concern about the alleged lack of a level playing field during the election campaign. The OSCE has complained that coverage by the state broadcaster appears to be showing "unbalance in favour of certain pro-government parties and blocs".

But Siwiec said it was likely that the overall conduct of the elections would be "free and fair".

Article reports that according to the Austrian Presidency the European Union was planning to examine whether existing sanctions on Belarus should be tightened following the country's 'fundamentally flawed' Presidential elections on 19 March 2006. Article also includes a note on forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Ukraine.