EUROPEAN UNION AND BELARUS: A NEED FOR MORE PRAGMATIC APPROACH?

This paper aims to assess limits of the European Union's ability to prompt the process of reforms in Belarus as a function of the conditionality approach's effectiveness. The Republic of Belarus stands out among other EU neighboring countries and represents a certain dilemma for the European Union. The EU's commitment to democratic values determined that the Union's policy towards Belarus has been mostly based on the principle of political conditionality. In the light of the present state of relations, the recent experience of political rapprochement during 2008-2010 should be interpreted rather in context of a number of external factors which shifted the EU's policy towards Belarus to a more pragmatic approach.