May 13, 2004
EU EXCLUDES BELARUS FROM NEW NEIGHBORS STRATEGY
The European Commission on 12 May made public a strategy document on developing closer ties between the EU and its "new neighbors" to the east and south, an RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels reported. "We want to create a 'ring of friends,'" EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said in presenting the document. "We want to create a neighborhood in which we can develop the same level of political and economic stability that we have already achieved in the enlarged European Union." The document envisages "action plans" for the quick development of ties with seven governments : Ukraine, Moldova, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia - but leaves out Belarus. "In the present situation there is no way to discuss with Belarus an action plan," Verheugen said. "What we have to do is to support initiatives which would finally lead to political reform and political change in Belarus." Verheugen rejected suggestions that the Polish government does not support the commission's tough stance vis-a-vis Belarus. He said the commission is in constant contact with Warsaw and that "there is no contradiction."
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