Although Belarus’ recent crackdown on its Polish minority was widely discussed in Brussels last week, the EU decided to postpone action. The issue was debated at a summit of foreign ministers last Monday and during the European Parliament’s Wednesday-Thursday session last week, thanks in part to Poland’s efforts to include the issue on the agenda. No official stance was issued in either case.

A resolution on Belarus’ human rights infringements was instead postponed to the March session, after protests from the socialist and communist factions, who purportedly want to wait for the results of a fact-finding mission sent to Belarus last Thursday. Some Polish MEPs, however, saw this as reluctance to interfere with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his allies in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski met with Mr Lukashenko in Kiev on February 25, during the inauguration of Ukraine’s new president. The politicians agreed to form an expert group on the issues of ethnic Poles in Belarus, although the Belarusian president claimed that no harm is being done to them. During a press conference, he stressed that he would solve their problems himself.

“They are my Poles, my voters and I will do everything to make them feel good in Belarus,” he said. Asked about members of the Polish minority who have been arrested, he claimed that they probably wanted to go to jail just to show how bad their situation was.

Belarusian authorities recently cracked down on a faction of the Union of Poles in Belarus which is not recognized by the state, detaining dozens of activists. There are around 400,000 ethnic Poles in Belarus.