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EU commissioner says that he discussed human rights with Lukashenka

Stefan Fule, the European Union's commissioner for enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, said that he had discussed the human rights situation at a meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk earlier this week.

Mr. Fule stayed in the Belarusian capital on July 8 and 9, meeting with both opposition politicians and top government officials.

As the EU official told BelaPAN, he said at the meetings that "respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are at the basis of our policy towards our neighbors, and a key factor in establishing the intensity of our bilateral relations."

"Only through respect for these fundamental universal values, can Belarus fully exploit the potential that our European Neighborhood Policy in general, and Eastern Partnership in particular offer for the countries of the region," he said.

Speaking last week about his meeting with the EU commissioner, Mr. Lukashenka said, "Thankfully, we didn’t touch on the issues of this policy, democratization and so on. We touched on issues relating to the functioning of the Eastern Partnership."