The European Parliament adopted by 567 votes to 25, with 66 abstentions, a resolution on the need for actions to address the continued oppression and fake elections in Belarus.
The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, Renew, Greens/EFA groups.
Since the fraudulent presidential election of August 2020, the illegitimate Lukashenka regime, with Russian support, has systematically repressed political activists, civil society, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, artists, religious leaders, trade unionists and other groups in Belarus and abroad, arbitrarily detaining tens of thousands of people.
Parliament reiterated its non-recognition of the election of Aliaksandr Lukashenka to the post of President of Belarus and considered the current regime in Belarus to be illegitimate, illegal and criminal.
Denouncing the lack of freedom, fairness and transparency ahead of the so-called presidential elections on 26 January 2025 in Belarus, Members called for the EU, its Member States and the international community to:
- categorically reject the upcoming elections and the run-up campaign as a sham, as they do not meet minimum international standards for democratic elections;
- continue not to recognise the legitimacy of Aliaksandr Lukashenka as president after 26 January 2025.
Parliament reiterated its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all individuals detained in Belarus for their political views, alongside compensation and the restoration of their rights.
As for the EU and its Member States, they are called on to:
- continue to investigate human rights abuses in Belarus and to support accountability measures, including through universal jurisdiction;
- investigate the crimes against humanity committed by the Lukashenka regime in Belarus and on EU territory;
- support political prisoners and their families, including by demanding proof of political prisoners’ whereabouts, requesting their release, simplifying the procedures for those fleeing Belarus to obtain visas and identity documents;
- broaden and strengthen sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for the repression in Belarus and for Belarus’s participation in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine;
- immediately identify, freeze, and find legal pathways for seizing assets of the Belarusian leadership and related Belarusian entities involved in the Russian war effort;
- continue raising the situation in Belarus in all relevant international organisations, in particular the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the UN and its specialised bodies and the ILO;
- work on a coordinated response to counter Lukashenka regime’s weaponisation and instrumentalisation of migration.
The resolution denounced the illegal transfer of several thousand children, including orphans, from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to so-called recreational camps in Belarus, where they are subjected to Russification and indoctrination.
Lastly, Belarus is urged to commute all death sentences, impose a moratorium on capital punishment and move towards its permanent abolition.