EU to announce major support package for Belarus’ civil society

December 1, BPN. The EU is about to unwrap a bulky support package for the Belarusian civil society, the European Commission’s Jeroen Willems has said.

He was speaking at a virtual event on the civil society’s resilience, organized by Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja’s office and the Oxford Belarus Observatory on December 1.

“In a few days’ time we will have the official launch of our new annual support package to the people of Belarus. Once that package will be adopted early next week we would have brought to the people of Belarus since August 2020 over €100 million to support civil society,” he said.

The EU believes that it is important to invest in people to create a stable civil society, the EU official said, and to support independent media. He added that aid had already been extended in 2021.

In May 2021, the European Commission announced a €3 billion economic support plan for a future democratic Belarus. It said that the package would be activated as soon as Belarus embarked on the democratic path.