Poland Proposes Billion-euro EU Fund For Belarus

Poland on Thursday proposed a European Union stabilisation fund for Belarus worth at least one billion euros ($1.2 billion) as unprecedented protests rock the country over its disputed presidential election

Vilnius, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2020 ) :Poland on Thursday proposed a European Union stabilisation fund for Belarus worth at least one billion Euros ($1.2 billion) as unprecedented protests rock the country over its disputed presidential election.

Warsaw's call for financial support comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin backed embattled Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko and promised a $1.5 billion loan.

A "new Marshall Plan" from the EU "should really be significant... so at least a billion euros at this stage," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart in Vilnius.

The Marshall Plan saw the US pump vast financial aid into western Europe to help it rebuild after World War II.

Morawiecki said he would formally present the plan at the September 24-25 European Council, adding that fellow EU eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Lithuania -- which like Belarus and Poland once lay behind the Iron Curtain -- have endorsed it.

The Polish leader floated the idea of the International Monetary Fund also buttressing Belarus.

Belarus's leading opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya claimed victory in the August 9 vote, accusing the government of rigging it to hand Lukashenko a landslide victory.

Since the election, the former Soviet republic has seen mass protests calling for an end to the 26-year rule of the man sometimes called "Europe's last dictator".

A former collective farm manager, Lukashenko governs Belarus with an iron fist and has overseen a violent crackdown against the protests.

Tikhanovskaya warned last week that Belarus was on the "threshold of an economic abyss" as private Belarusian companies, notably in its vibrant tech sector, have begun to seek out opportunities in neighbouring EU states.

Putin has been keen to unify Russia and Belarus, and Moscow has accompanied its offers of military and economic aid with calls for tighter integration.

Lukashenko vowed to strengthen ties with Russia at an in-person meeting with Putin in Black Sea resort Sochi last week.