EU allocates 30 million euros to aid civil society in Belarus
The European Union has allocated approximately 30 million euros to help Belarusian civil society – including independent media, cultural workers who were forced to leave Belarus, emigrated wanderers and young people. About it said the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
“The European Union supports the Belarusian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy,” said the head of the European Commission at a meeting between the EU and the opposition. She also reminded that $ 3 billion is ready for the future democratic elected government of Belarus.
At the meeting, President of the European Council Charles Michel, speaking within the framework of participation in the opposition leadership Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, expressed hope that in a year’s time at the next Eastern Partnership summit Belarus will be represented by a “democratically elected president”. In the same year, according to him, at the summit to be held on December 15, the seat of Belarus will be empty.
Michel said that there are now more than 900 political prisoners in Belarus, and it is said that the EU is working to ensure that those guilty of violating human rights in the country are held accountable.
The EU does not consider Alexander Lukashenko to be the legitimate president of Belarus. Official Minsk, in turn, this year announced its withdrawal from the Eastern Partnership program, which unites the EU and non-member countries that were previously part of the USSR (except Russia).