Speech by EU High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the European Parliament’s High-level Conference “Belarus: Building Foundations for Democratic Change".

Honourable Members,

Madam Vice-President of the European Parliament,

Dear Sviatlana,

Dear representatives of the Belarusian democratic movement and civil society.

It is an honour to join you today and be here with you. Many thanks go to International IDEA and the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Belarus, for organising it. And also to the European Parliament for hosting us today.

Above all, I would like to welcome Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and so many representatives of the democratic forces and civil society. Your courage and dignity continue to inspire those you are standing up for at home. And also it inspires all of us so thank you for that.

Dear friends,

I understand you have already been very busy since early this morning.

You have been discussing transformation and transitional justice, human rights and accountability. These are familiar concepts to us in Brussels.  We know that if we are to be credible in supporting democratic transition abroad, we need to also keep chipping away at our own imperfections at home.

You already have talked at length about:

• the state-of-affairs in your country, especially since the fraudulent elections in 2020;
• the more than twelve hundred political prisoners, whose immediate release we seek;
• And the thousands of others facing prosecution, torture, intimidation and forced exile.

We are of course grateful to the United States for its engagement on this humanitarian track. And as we have noted over and over, the recent releases do not signal a dismantling of the repressive system that continues to strike fear into your hearts on a daily basis.

In short, today you have already dissected half of the EU’s two-fold strategy:  the part on supporting the people of Belarus.

And on this point, I am happy to hear that this morning, also my colleague Commissioner Kos, Marta, announced our new 30 million euro assistance package to support civil society. This brings total EU support to Belarussian civil society to 200 million euro since 2020.

Now I want to talk about the other half of the EU’s two-fold strategy. Notably the need to isolate, including by additional sanctions, a regime that for four years already has helped Russia prosecute its war of aggression against Ukraine.

In the last 100 years, Russia has invaded at least 19 countries, some of them three or four times. None of these 19 countries has ever invaded or attacked Russia.

And who is Russia’s handmaiden in this effort? Belarus.

• Belarus directly and indirectly supports Russia’s war.
• Belarus, who also adhered to the OSCE principles—including the inviolability of borders enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act.
• Belarus, who by a quirk of history was, alongside Russia and Ukraine, among the original signatories of the United Nations Charter, which of course prohibits the threat or use of force.

Belarus is not only helping Russia directly and indirectly. It is also engaging in a series of hybrid incidents and provocations that threaten the security of EU Member States.

These include airspace incursions, drone and balloon incidents, Foreign malign influence as well as continued orchestration of migration pressure and smuggling across EU borders.

As a result, we are working to expand our sanctions regime.

The philosopher and diplomat from the French revolutionary period Joseph de Maistre is often quoted as having said, “every country has the government it deserves.”

But I could not disagree more. It is not the population of Belarus that supports these nefarious activities of the regime.

And that is why we continue our policy of support to the people of Belarus, through programmes like the one we are celebrating today.

Dear friends,

Your struggle is long and it is hard. But it is not in vain.

Authoritarian regimes that rely on fear instead of consent are always more fragile than they appear. We know this from our own history and experience. The majority of EU Member States came in from the cold of an authoritarian past. 
So you can count on the European Union. We stand with you—not symbolically, but very concretely: 

• with pressure when needed
• with protection where necessary
• with assistance when and where it matters

We will support a future Belarusian-led democratic transition when conditions allow, including with up to 3 billion euro for financial and technical support, as our Member States decided last year.

We see you. We believe in you. And we trust that the work you have started to build the foundations of democratic change will have an impact on tomorrow’s Belarus.

Thank you very much.