News

On 3 September, the second day of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers (Gymnich), participants dedicated a lot of attention to the human rights situation in Belarus. Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Evaldas Ignatavičius, who represented Lithuania at the meeting, said that the neighboring country had not only to release political prisoners, but also to rehabilitate them.

At the discussions in Sopot, Poland, Ministers stressed that they would resume the EU’s dialogue with the official Minsk only if all political prisoners were released. EU should maintain regular contacts with the opposition and support society’s orientation towards the EU through various educational and public programmes.

E.Ignatavičius also emphasized the flaws of the Schengen Information System that are abused by the citizens of third countries who are unwelcome in the EU member states, and invited ministers to give adequate political attention to these issues. At the same time, the problem of personal data protection in processes of mutual legal assistance of the EU and third countries also has to be solved, so that the exchange of information would not be used for the purposes of political persecution, like in the case of heads of the organization “Vesna”.

During the meeting of Gymnich, ministers held a discussion with representatives of candidate countries for EU membership and discussed initiatives in the European neighborhood and the situation in Syria.

Lithuania supports efforts to increase the pressure on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by expanding the existing sanctions and imposing new ones. At the same time, Lithuania aims to protect ordinary people of Syria from the harm of new sanctions. Coordinated effort of the international community is necessary when solving Syria’s political crisis.