Editing Foreign relations of Belarus (section)

===Relations with the European Union===
{{main|Belarus–European Union relations}}
The structure of Belarus trade reflects the low competitiveness and output decline of manufacturing industry in the country over the past decade, leading to the predominance of primary production, work-intensive goods as exports. Belarusian exports to the EU consist mainly of agricultural and textile products, while imports from the EU are primarily machinery.

Belarus is a beneficiary of the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). The European Commission decided in 2003 to initiate an investigation into violations of freedom of association in Belarus as the first step towards a possible temporary withdrawal of the GSP from Belarus.

In December 2004, the EU adopted a position aimed at imposing travel restrictions on officials from Belarus responsible for the fraudulent parliamentary elections and referendum on 17 October 2004, and for human rights violations during subsequent peaceful political demonstrations in [[Minsk]].
The [[European Parliament]] released a statement in March 2005 in which it denounced the Belarusian government as a dictatorship. The European parliamentarians were primarily concerned about the suppression of independent media outlets in the country and the fraudulent referendum. A resolution of the European Parliament declared that the personal bank accounts of President Lukashenko and other high-ranking Belarusian officials should be tracked and frozen.

In 2005, [[Amnesty International]] reported a ''pattern of deliberate obstruction, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders'' in Belarus. [[Reporters Without Borders]] accused the Belarusian authorities of hounding and arresting journalists from the country's Polish minority. Lukashenko has closed the country's main Polish newspaper, printing a bogus paper instead with the same name and size that praises his incumbent government. Several foreign, mainly Polish, journalists have been arrested or expelled from the country. Lukashenko accused Poland of an attempt to overthrow his government by stirring up a peaceful revolution in Belarus comparable to the [[Orange Revolution]] in [[Ukraine]] in 2004.

Later in 2005 the Belarusian [[riot police]] seized the headquarters of the [[Union of Poles in Belarus]], an association representing the 400,000 [[ethnic minority]] Polish living in western areas the country that were part of Poland until [[World War II]]. The dispute between Poland and Belarus escalated further as Poland responded by recalling its ambassador from Belarus for indefinite consultations, and called on the European Union to impose sanctions on the Belarusian leadership in order to curtail the [[human rights]] abuses in Belarus. Belarusian papers described this as a 'dirty political game', and part of a 'cold war' waged on president Lukashenko. Polish Foreign Minister [[Adam Rotfeld]] said a clampdown was under way, aimed at destroying ''"all elements of political pluralism and independence"'' in Belarus.

[[File:European Union Eastern Partnership.svg|thumb|Members of the Eastern Partnership]]

In August 2005 the EU's executive commission called for human rights to be respected in Belarus. The commission said it was considering offering support to independent media in the country and had set aside more than eight million euros from its budget to offer support for human rights activities. France expressed her solidarity with Poland on the issue of human rights in Belarus a day after the EU declared it was worried about the situation in that country. Several former Soviet Republics, including neighbouring Ukraine, also expressed their concerns about the development of the situation in Belarus.

In May 2009 Belarus and the EU agree on cooperation in the [[Eastern Partnership]] (EaP). However, it is contended by some scholars that the (EaP) is unable to create a workable partnership.<ref name=Korosteleva2008>[[Elena Korosteleva]], "The Limits of the EU Governance: Belarus ' Response to the European Neighbourhood Policy", Contemporary Politics, Vol. 15(2), June 2009, pp. 229–45</ref> This proved to be correct when Belarus withdrew from the Partnership on 30 September 2011.<ref name="Belarus Withdrawal">[http://www.euractiv.com/europes-east/belarus-quits-eus-eastern-partnership-initiative-news-508050 Belarus quits EU's Eastern Partnership initiative] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002084121/http://www.euractiv.com/europes-east/belarus-quits-eus-eastern-partnership-initiative-news-508050 |archive-date=2011-10-02|website=www.euractiv.com|access-date= 2011-10-30}}</ref>

In August 2012, Belarus expelled all [[Sweden|Swedish]] diplomats, including the Swedish Ambassador to Belarus, Stefan Eriksson, and closed its embassy in [[Stockholm]], after a Swedish [[public relations]] firm released [[teddy bear]]s carrying pro-democracy flyers in parachutes from an airplane over Minsk on 4 July 2012. Lukashenko also fired his air defence chief and the head of the border guards over the incident. Their replacements have been told not to hesitate to use force to stop future intrusions from abroad.<ref name="Belarus Sweden">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19176432 Belarus-Sweden teddy bear row escalates], ''[[BBC News]]'', 2012-08-08</ref>