Sviatlana Karaliova: EaP CS Forum shouldn’t get divided into the major league and outsiders division

At the Assembly of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in Kyiv on November 19-21 24 delegates from more than two dozens organizations will represent Belarus.

As Sviatlana Karaliova, the head of the Coordinating Board of the Belarusan National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum notes, in early November in Minsk a meeting of future participants of the Assembly in Kyiv and members of the National Platform took place. The meeting “decided on tasks, chose priorities of Belarusan delegation, and discussed possible candidacies from Belarus to the governing bodies and working groups of the EaP CS Forum”.

“We defined three tasks that should be resolved in the first turn. It will be our message to the meeting in Kyiv”, - informed Sviatlana Karaliova in the interview with the “EuroBelarus” Information Service.

According to her, the first task is to define development issues of the EaP CS Forum and National Platforms themselves: “We understand that EaP CS Forum is an agent that we form ourselves and that directly leads to all European institutions; so it is very important to strengthen the voice of this only body that represents the interests of the civil society of the EaP countries”. With that said, Sviatlana Karaliova mentioned that the situation with National Platforms themselves is very different from country to country: “those signed the Association Agreement and those, who didn’t”. “In this situation, Belarusan National Platform needs a strategic plan – without it, no one can develop. We’ll have a two-day meeting of the NP members in late November that will be devoted to the discussion of the first variant of a strategic plan”, - noted Karaliova.

Second task, according to the head of the Coordinating Board, is the strengthening of the first working group of the EaP CSF (Democracy, human rights, suitable government and stability): “Today, as we see, this notorious European pragmatism is revealing itself more and more, when more attention is given to business, social dialog, etc.; but the most important aspect – human rights – starts moving to sidelines”. Sviatlana Karaliova sees Elena Tonkacheva, the head of the Center for Legal Transformation “Lawtrend” as the most appropriate candidacy for coordination of the first working group.

“Thirdly, we assume that we can’t allow separation of the Civil Society Forum to leagues – those who signed the Association Agreement and those, who that didn’t. The role of National Platforms in the work of the EaP CSF shouldn’t be changing due to the fact of signing/non-signing of this document. We understand that new challenges, new working conditions appeared for “signatories”; however, it shouldn’t change the role of the civil society as an active actor”, - said Sviatlana Karaliova.

According to Karaliova, for fulfillment of the above-mentioned tasks Belarusan delegation will be concentrated on “thematic meetings with a very specific agenda”. “If the EaP CS Forum is able to define its priorities for a year, at least in some clear and small programs, it will be easier for us to evaluate the efficiency of the Forum for Belarus, and, correspondingly, National Platforms will strengthen”, - noted Sviatlana Karaliova.

According to the information of the head of the Coordinating Board, Belarusan National Platform should decide on the final variant of strategic planning in February of 2016.