“The EU’s approach towards Belarus, in the context of the wider neighbourhood: is there a strategy?” A policy brief by Oxford Belarus Observatory

Oxford Belarus Observatory, in collaboration with the Research Centre of the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (OST) and the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) of the University of Warwick, is compiling a series of Policy Briefs based on the discussions taking place in our jointly convened Expert Webinar series.

We invite you to read the Policy Brief we have composed based on “The EU’s approach towards Belarus, in the context of the wider neighbourhood: is there a strategy?” Expert Webinar, which took place on May 11, 2023.

This policy brief focuses on the EU’s approach towards Belarus, which has undergone different stages. The first stage to be observed is the EU-Belarus cooperation prior to 2020. Next, it is the period during and after the year 2020 which constituted a turning point for the EU in terms of ceasing its cooperation with the dictatorship. The latest stage observed is the one following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when the EU increased pressure on the Lukashenka regime and designed new support mechanisms for the Belarusian society.