This opinion was voiced by
a group of Belarusian experts in the course of their visit to
Brussels. On 2-5 March experts of the
consortium euroblearus.info following an invitation of the Brussels Office of
Henrich Bell Foundation paid an informal visit to the capital of the European
Union. Belarusian experts met with the representatives of the European
Commission, Deputies of the Delegation of the European Parliament for relations
with
Belarus.
A meeting was held in a closed format of ‘lunch debate’ where
representatives of the European Commission, representatives of a number of
European Foundations and analytical centres were present. The main issue of the
discussion during the ‘debate’ was regarding the effectiveness of the policy of
the European Union in relation to
Belarus. The debates started with
welcome presentations by Belarusian experts. Mr. Vladislav Vialichko, the Head
of the International consortium on European-Belarusian cooperation with NGOs
and the Coordinator of the website www.eurobelarus.info
believes that the changes in the European-Belarusian relations in 2008 opened
new opportunities for the Belarusian civil society. However they could only take
advantage of these opportunities on the condition they were involved in the process
of the European-Belarusian dialogue de facto.
Andrey Yegorov, an expert of the Humanitarian Technologies Agency said
that the Eastern Partnership could become a playground for the elaboration of a
new strategy of the European Union for both,
Belarus and other countries of the
region.
Europe today needs a new pro-active
doctrine of the external relations, otherwise all the political approaches will
continue being inefficient further on. The expert thinks that Belarusian intellectual
resources should also be included in the process of elaboration of such
doctrine.
Tatiana Poshevalova, a representative of a civil society organization “Centre
for Social Innovations” and an expert of the activities of the European
Commission on improvement of the cooperation of Belarusian NGOs with local
authorities, emphasized that the issue of Belarus was quite problematic for the
European policy and that there was a need in profound research of the situation
in Belarus. Without such approach it would be impossible to elaborate adequate
and efficient policy towards
Belarus.
The imitation of democratic changes in place of real changes is a
characteristic feature of all post-Soviet political regimes. In order not to
get trapped by this imitation once again, it is necessary to secure adequate
mechanisms of social control and participation of the civil society in the
process of Belarusian liberalization, ‘virtual so far’.
In the course of the meeting with the representatives
of the Delegation of the European Parliament for relations with
Belarus, important issues of participation of
Belarus in the
Eastern Partnership initiative and on the extension of the removal of sanctions
were raised. Whether it was worth to grant
Belarus a full partnership status? Whether
it was appropriate to invite Aleksandr Lukashenko to take part in the Eastern
Partnership Summit? These two questions were posed to the EU MPs. The position
of the Belarusian side was unanimous with regard to the issue that Belarus
should not be exclude from the participation in the Eastern Partnership,
however concrete forms and mechanisms of such participation as well as the
framework of the Eastern Partnership itself needed further detailed elaboration.
Re-introducing sanctions would have been inefficient step, said experts from
Belarus. The European
bodies need to pay attention to both the reaction of the Belarusian authorities
and also to the hopes and perspectives for the Belarusian society that
Belarusian-European cooperation brings.
