European Forum

Minister Schwarzenberg invited Belarus to the Eastern Partnership Summit

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg invited Belarus to the Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held in Prague on 7 May.

The Czech Minister handed over the invitation to Belarus at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus itself will decide who will represent the country at the Summit.

Among the main topics of the meeting with Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Martynov were the Eastern Partnership, human rights and economic and financial crisis. Minister Schwarzenberg reiterated that each country of the Eastern Partnership should come up with concrete areas of cooperation with the European Union within the context of this project, which it considers as most beneficial. In this respect, the ministers mentioned the transport of energy resources, as well as the need to deal with the impacts of the financial and economic crisis.

“We led an open discussion with the (Belarusian) Minister about the fact that the Eastern Partnership is no altruistic project. It is mutually important for us to create an environment that is safe for investments and to ensure that we become prospering neighbours.”

At the meeting Karel Schwarzenberg also pointed out the problems with registration of several non-governmental organisations. According to Minister Martynov Belarus is also discussing this issue with the EU (since the relaunching of the discussion last autumn); nevertheless, society cannot be changed overnight. The Ministers agreed that both the EU and Belarus are interested in the EU-Belarus dialogue concerning human rights, the preparations for which are currently under way.

In Minsk, Minister Schwarzenberg also spoke with representatives of the Belarusian opposition. They believe that the situation in Belarus has recently been changing for the better, albeit the changes are not system-related. Officials who violate human rights by repression are not being held accountable. In this context the representatives of the Belarusian opposition expressed their hope that the Eastern Partnership Project will have a positive influence on the ethics of the officials and on their approach towards civil society.


Source: EU2009.com