WHO HAS BENEFITED FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY IN BELARUS?

Since the establishment of the authoritarian regime of Lukašenka’s rule in 1996, Belarus’s political relations with the EU have constantly been deteriorating. Negotiations with Belarus on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) were completed in 1995, but the ratification of the PCA and the Interim Trade Agreement has stopped since 1997. The legal founda¬tions of EU-Belarus relations so far have only been covered by the 1989 Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the 1993 bilateral Agreement on Trade in Textile Products. Due to human rights and democracy standards violations, a range of sanctions was introduced with regard to Belarus in 1996-2004: con¬tacts at the ministerial level were stopped in 1996, and in 2002 the visa ban on Belarus’s leadership was imposed. The visa ban blacklist had constantly been widening and reached 37 persons in 2006.