Diplomatic sources in Brussels say that the EU does not intend to apply any penalties to Belarus because of the dispersal of opposition demonstration in the evening on December 19. Also, they say, the EU's decision not to apply sanctions against Belarus will not affect the conclusions of the OSCE observer mission on the rigged election's results.
According to the diplomat, willing to remain anonymous, this conclusion can be drawn from statements of EU High Representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, about the elections in Belarus, which contained a much more lenient assessment of what had happened, rather than, for example, the U.S. State Department’s statement, Euobserver reports.
She did not call for the release of prisoners or decline to recognise the election result, however, a European diplomat said.
«You’ve seen the Ashton line — it means we are going to do nothing,» an EU diplomatic contact said. «If there had been 100,000 people on the street or some corpses in the square then it might have been different.»
According to him, even Poland, neighboring Belarus and having the greatest influence on the policies of Brussels toward the official Minsk, is now not interested to punish Lukashenko, as Warsaw believes it not to lead to the establishment of democracy in Belarus and not protect the independence of Belarus from Russia.
«The real shock was how many people came out on the streets. In a way, you could say the opposition provoked Lukashenko: If it had been 10,000, he could have let it go by. But with 20,000 or more he had to react,» European diplomat said.
