VOA慢速英语--欧盟邀请白俄罗斯参加东部伙伴关系会议

EU 'Ready to Welcome' Belarus President to Eastern Partnership¹ Meeting

The European Union is reportedly ready to welcome President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus to its Eastern Partnership (EaP) meeting next month.

It is the first time EU officials have permitted Lukashenka to attend the meeting. The EaP summit will open in Brussels on November 24.

EU sources say Belarus was invited to take part in the summit "without restrictions²" -- just like the five other EaP members: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The sources spoke³ with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Both RFE/RL and Voice of America are part of the United States-financed Broadcasting Board of Governors.

There were four earlier EaP summits. Before each of them, the EU said the president of Belarus was not welcome to attend. Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for 21 years. He has been called the “last dictator of Europe.”

Lukashenko has been president since 1994. He won a fifth term in a 2015 election that Western observers say was neither free nor fair.

The Belarus government was represented by its foreign minister at the last Eastern Partnership summit, which was held in Riga in 2015.

The EU launched the partnership in 2009 to support economic integration⁴ and European values in six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries.

The EU announced restrictive measures against Belarus in 2004 after two opposition⁵ politicians disappeared. In 2010, the European Council took steps to punish Belarus after unrest following their earlier presidential election.

But in February 2016, the EU lifted most of the restrictions against the country. The organization said it had cancelled the sanctions “in response to the release of all Belarusian political prisoners on [August 22, 2016] and in the context of improving EU-Belarus relations.”

I’m Dorothy Gundy.

Words in This Story

summit – n. a meeting or meetings between top leaders

source – n. a person who supplies what is wanted or needed; the cause of something

integration – n. the act of uniting different things

in the context of – expression when considered with related events

1 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

2 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。