Ulad Vialichka: Summit will be a certain point

Fifth annual Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum is going on in Chisinau.

As EuroBelarus has earlier reported, Chisinau greeted the 5^th annual Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, where alongside with representatives from the six countries of the Eastern Partnership and the EU, Belarusan delegation represented by 26 civil society organizations is taking part.

On the first day of the Forum new National Coordinator of the EaP CSF was elected. New Belarusan National Coordinator is Andrei Yahorau, the Member of the Board of International Consortium "EuroBelarus" and the Member of the Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the EaP CSF, the Coordinator of the Expert Working Group 1 of the European Dialog on Modernization and the Director of Centre for European Transformation.

During the first official Forum panel Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, held a speech. He said that the pressure Russia puts on Eastern European countries that aim to sign the Association Agreement with the EU is unacceptable. According to the European Commissioner, EU partners should have a possibility to decide for themselves and establish relations with their neighbours: “Any pressure, whatever it can be, shouldn’t influence the decision of the country to sign the Association Agreement”, - stated Štefan Füle.

Besides, as Ulad Vialichka, the member of the Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the EaP CSF, said in the interview with the “EuroBelarus” Information Service, European Commissioner Štefan Füle touched upon the issue of the forthcoming Eastern Partnership Summit, which is to take place in Vilnius in November. The Summit brings up to date expectations as to the progress demonstrated by the countries within the framework of this initiative: “Štefan Füle noted that the Summit is to become a certain point, when it is necessary to draw intermediate results and see which progress is already achieved in the EU-EaP relations. It is the time to relocate the program, as well as redefine the relations of the EU with the eastern neighbours in accordance with the achieved results”.

„The Summit is important for the next steps to differentiate eastern partners. Each partner should decide on the level of involvement and identify its own European vector. And I promise you that EU’s support to civil society will be even stronger where they are under the pressure of authorities,” – emphasized Stefan Füle, speaking about the situation in Armenia and Belarus.

In relation to the Eastern Partnership Summit, European Commissioner for Enragement noted four points:

- Within the framework of the initiative there will be no compromise from the EU concerning values and principles; all the earlier mentioned positions will get further development;

- None of the countries will take a back seat, regardless of their progress as to the signing of the Association Agreement by this or that country;

- With certain differentiation in the EU member-states, there will be no difference in our treatment of the civil society from these states;

- EU will continue its work aimed at including civil society in the very center of Eastern Partnership and will continue articulating such policy in the relations with the governments of the countries-partners.

According to Ulad Vialichka, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius, the representative of the country that now holds presidency in the EU Council, also voiced very clear theses in relation to the expectations form the EaP for the near future: “Among the mentioned priorities he noted the appropriation of the initiative by the society as its own task, irreversibility of the launched reforms as well as the vision for the future, especially that after the Vilnius Summit”.

 It was already announced that the next, 6^th meeting of the Forum will take place next year in Tbilisi.