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No place for Lukashenka in democratic community, European Parliament president says

 

There is no place for Alyaksandr Lukashenka in a democratic community, Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said in Vilnius on May 31 at a meeting between the heads of the parliament`s political groups and the heads of the factions and committees in Lithuania`s Seimas.

Mr. Schulz was answering a question from Benediktas Juodka, head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Lithuanian parliament, whether Belarusian representatives should be invited to an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius in November, reported Lithuania`s BNS news agency. According to Mr. Juodka, Mr. Lukashenka should be invited to the event, but he is banned from entering the European Union, and so is Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey. A decision to invite Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich would anger Mr. Lukashenka, he warned.

Mr. Schulz, for his part, referred to last year`s execution of the two young men found guilty of the April 2011 subway bombing. He described their execution as a political murder, said BNS.

The European Parliament president stressed that the EU should take efforts to open the doors to the Belarusian people while continuing to shun Mr. Lukashenka. He acknowledged that it was difficult to do so and that the EU had no easy solution. // BelaPAN