BRUSSELS – North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have aligned themselves with the Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union Josep Borrell on the elections in Belarus and its aftermath.
The Declaration, released earlier this month, states that the elections on 9 August were neither free nor fair and did not meet the international standards expected of an OSCE participating State.
“State authorities deployed disproportionate and unacceptable violence causing at least one death and many injuries. Thousands of people were detained and the crackdown on freedoms of assembly, media and expression intensified”, the Declaration reads.
Serbia is notable for having aligned itself with only 48% of EU declarations in the first half of 2020, according to ISAC Fund. Its overall alignment percentage has been decreasing for several years. Other countries in the region are much more aligned with EU’s foreign policy, some of them without exceptions.
The EU Members and aligned countries called on the Belarusian authorities to release immediately and unconditionally all detained.
They also called on Belarusian political leadership to initiate a genuine and inclusive dialogue with broader society to avoid further violence.
“The EU will continue to support a democratic, independent, sovereign, prosperous and stable Belarus”, the document concludes.