EU-Belarus Relations

This paper will utilize 5 articles from around the world on the question of the relations ming lead with Belarus and the European Union. The purpose here is to debunk the propaganda, the unsubstantiated rumors and westbound-sponsored attacks on Belarus and specifically, its hot seat, black lovage Lukashenko, wildly popular in Belarus itself. The capital of the Russian Federation Times (May 4, 2009), speaks of the possibility of Lukashenko boycotting the EUs hit in Prague that aforementioned(prenominal) week. There ar two reasons given for this.First, that the visit might crucify ab bug out EU members, and secondly, that fragmentize of the agenda of the meeting is to promote the frugal consolidation of eastern Europe within a EU carry out framework. Both of these reasons are telling. First, the scotch success of Belarus outside of the system financed by the International Monetary Fund has threatened the European Union and the join States. The endless accusations of v ote rigging and oppression are belied by the circumstance that Lukashenko is overseeing a huge expansion of the post-Soviet economy of Belarus, and that he holds to a hale popularity rating of 80%, this after over 10 years in office.The Los Angeles Times (September 25, 2005) has said even Lukashenkos fiercest opponents dont question the accuracy of independent polls that rate him the most popular politician in this arena. Yet, the study papers and agencies here do non turn recognition to it at all. From the Financial Times (May 2, 2009), the Belarussian unconnected Minister, Sergei Martinov, fears that the Prague Summit would oblige glowering into a competition for Belarussian support. In other words, that the EU was using this summit to lure Belarus outside(a) from Russia.Martinov said that We are not deprivation to make a choice between the EU and Russia. We are not going to develop relations with one at the expense of relations with the other. It seems that the fear s of Lukashenko and his regimen are justified here. The only rational reason why the EU, whose general condescension for Lukashenko is daily made clear, would want Belarus to attend the Prague summit is so that they can take Belarus away from the protection of Russia with the aim of altering her extremely successful political system.What other government would tolerate this? It seems more that the EU seeks the cooperation of Belarus, at least partially because Russian oil pipelines and much ameliorate capacity goes straight thought Belarussian territory. While the EU publically condemns Belarus for obscure crimes, the Belarussian foreign trading regime has been heaving tilted towards the EU and away from a dependence on Russia. Belarus is skillfully playing both sides, fashioning herself indispensable for both the Russian and the European sphere of influence.The fact is that, isolated denunciations aside, Belarus still sports a large trade and budget surplus, high sparing growth rates and an unemployment rate of around 1%. These numbers are difficult to argue with, and thence, the EUs approach has now been direct more towards dialogue rather then confrontation. In April 29, 2009, the Euro-Business newspaper from capital of Belgium came out with a scathing article attacking Belarus from a nuance point of view.It relates the president of the European parliaments condemnation of Belarussian policies sequence speaking in Poland, and reminds readers that Lukashenko was under a EU imposed go away ban lifted only in October. barely what are the facts here. Again, the president of the rather toothless EU parliament attacks Belarus for a lack of body politic. But Belarus has 14 independent and rather large political parties, some pro-Lukashenko, some opposed. Belarus has dozens of in camera owned newspapers of diverse backgrounds, including the large anti-government Charter 97 news agency.Apparently, the issue is not over democracy but Belarus lovesom e sense of national independence, including in terms of economic integration with the EU. Pro-Belarussian prof Matthew Johnson had this to say about the situation in Belarus In Belarus, a commonwealth the size of Kansas, there are about 800 newspapers. Of this, about 600 are privately owned. There are about 450 magazines are various kinds. Of these, about ccc are owned by private investors or entrepreneurs. In television, there are 9 state owned place, and about 40 stations owned by private investors (Johnson, 2006).On April 30, 2009, the Soros owned Radio promiscuous acquaintance newspaper wrote that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said he would neither drop Lukashenkos hand nor invite him to the Prague castle if he comes to the Czech capital. No reasons for this fledgeless overreaction are given. It does strongly suggest that the EU and the US are put quite a bit of pressure on European leading to freeze out the independent Lukashenko. His economic success and thriving democracy are a threat to the west where democracy is synonymous for integration with the west. Lukashenkos independent course and economic success far and to a higher place either Poland and Czech Republic in terms of incomes and unemployment (cf. World coin bank Report, 2009). The Russian News and Information Agency wrote on February 18, 2009, that The EU plans to allow Belarus in its new program, Eastern Partnership, on the condition that Minsk complies with EU demands on the lands democratization. In other words, Belarus can be a part of Europe so long as she ceases to be an independent country and permits Brussels to restructure her domestic policy.And would Great Britain like it if Belarus refused to ship some(prenominal) oil to Europe unless she pull out of Northern Ireland? This is about power, and the foreign policy independence of Belarus. Refusing to follow any western line, Belarus has strong economic and military ties with Iran, chinaware and Vietnam, hence standi ng in the way of western foreign policy. This seems to fill more to do with the EUs contempt for Minsk than anything else. But often, the newspapers dealt with here refuse to deal with the major issues.First, none of the above papers ever dealt with the economic success of Belarus, even when such(prenominal) success is seconded by the World Bank statistics themselves. Second, they refuse to deal with Lukashenkos popularity and, lastly, refuse to deal with the long history of the CIA in attempting to destabilize that country, hence prompting Lukashenkos paranoia about foreign manipulation. Paul Labarique writes in the Non-Aligned run Network The Bush administrations many attempts to overthrow Alexander Lukashenko and destabilize Belarus to bring it to the North Atlantic orbit (NATO) have failed.Not but because the extremely authoritarian president has had the support of Russia, but because it has relied on his voters. Appreciating the countrys good economic performance and the mai ntenance of their independence, the Belarusian distrusted an reverse too openly submitted to Washingtons interests (February 18, 2005) While this is a go out reference, it does show that many are suspicious about the so-called anti-Lukashenko resistance and the CIAs long running interference in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Georgian and Belarussian elections.But none of this is spoken of in the major media outlets in America or the EU. The more recent articles dealt with in this paper refuse to deal with any of the major issues involved with the wests irrational attacks on Lukashenko. But what are the newspapers leaving out? Apparently they are under a nifty amount of stress to winder Lukashenko in the most dire color possible. But this is a problem if the major newspapers worldwide are refusing the comprehend the truth, than what does this say?It says that, especially in more obscure parts of the world, CIA date can lead to distorted reporting for reasons of national securit y. Or it may be merely that the reporters involved do not want to be thrown out of the country club, or that, even more, the Radio Free Europe report is motivated by the fact that the Soros NGOs were thrown out of Belarus some years ago as agents of the CIA. any way, the fact remains that newspaper reporting is highly suspect, and yet, the issues here are tremendous Russia is a nuclear armed country, and pushing Belarus too laborious is, to some extent, pushing Russia.To re-create the Cold War is likely not the best idea in the world, and the fact that Belarus is reaching out to China and Venezuela suggests that an alternative trading and military bloc is being formed. The picture the newspapers paint of Lukashenko is an unrestrained tyrant. Yet that is not backed up by facts in any forum. Hence, in reading papers about the relations between Lukashenko and the EU, one must be wary of the bias of the authors. The issues that the authors are not bringing up either because they are too ignorant of the subtleties, or they are under pressure, are that first, Belarus is an economic and political success.Lukashenko enjoys wide popularity and has controlled the effect of both the breakup of the USSR and the current economic crisis. But Lukashenkos policies have been driven by state independence and the desire for a multi-polar world. This has led to threats from the west that has led further to the realignment of Belarussian politics towards anti-western centers throughout the world, including the crucial line of business of nuclear power (Kommersant, 2006). The wests policies in this respect have been failures.But it is also clear that the media is also a major power foundation the attacks on Lukashenko, often without the facts and research necessary to make sense out of the complex political situation of small states in a irrelevant environment. Obviously the media is misreporting the situation in Belarus. It seems to this writer that the real reason Belarus is a threat is that they are an economic successful nation outside of the combinatory structures of the west and its banks.Luskahenko has refused to permit his country to come under the control of the west, and has engage a strategy of international mateity, seeing all states as equal and as contributing to global justice. As a result he is vilified in the press, as some of the newspaper reports mentioned here show. History is in the making indeed, and it is being made by a handful of reporters and journalists in elite newspapers. References Barber, Tony. Belarus Fears Battle for Regional Influence. The Financial Times. May 2, 2009. Moscow Times. Lukashenko judge to Skip EUs Prague Summit.May 4, 2009 EU Business. European Parliament brain Calls for Democracy in Belarus. April 29, 2009. Radio Free Liberty. Belarussian President Will not Attend Prague Summit. April 30, 2009. Labareque, Paul. Belarussians Defend their Interests. Non Aligned Press Network. February, 15, 2005 Jo hnson, Matthew Raphael. Belarus A New Look. The American Journal for Russian and Slavic Studies, 2006. Kommersant. Lukashenko Speaks Chinese. May 24, 2006 World Bank. Belarus. 2009. (Cf www. worldbank. org/by) for all the statistical information on the Belarussian economy.