The European Union Eastern Partnership Initiative
initially proposed in 2008 by Poland
and Sweden is
regarded as the main instrument of the European Union to expand its political
and economic influence over the territories of the Former Soviet Union. Closer
cooperation provides with an opportunity to secure stability in the European
region, to expand the area of security and wellbeing as well as to guarantee
economic and energy security in the European Union as well as in the partner
countries.
Belarus has good European perspectives
The
Hungarian Ambassador to Belarus Mr. Ferenc Kontra believes that “Belarus has lost quite a lot in the past
years due to its self-isolation policy. While Russia, Ukraine and other countries were promoting
first of all their economic relations with Europe, Belarus was falling behind. Therefore the
Eastern Partnership is a historical opportunity for Belarus to catch-up in a short term period”.
The Director
of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research Vitaly Silitsky believes that
“it is a matter of principle for Belarus that the Eastern Partnership became
the institutional framework, the basis that could facilitate attraction of
foreign investment and to expand its trade relations with the European Union”.
A Russian political
expert and the Chief Editor of a magazine “Russia in the global politics”,
Fedor Lukyanov (nota bene that Russia is not a partner to the Eastern
Partnership Programme, which includes Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine
and Moldova) thinks that Belarus has very good European perspectives, that it
is the most beneficial and suitable partner for the European Union, “the
paradox is that if there is an ex-Soviet Union country that would be ideal for
the integration in to the Western institutions, firstly into the European
Union, it would be Belarus. It is a compact monotheistic country of the ‘European’
size and culture with well-educated population, that does not have oligarchs
and does not suffer the consequences of the privatization”.
Economic policy – towards the West
Today the cost
of all ongoing projects between Belarus and the European Union (not taking
into account Programmes of regional support and cross-border assistance) is
around 40 million Euro. This figure was voiced in the course of a round table
meeting “The Eastern Partnership of the European Union: Perspectives for Belarus” by the Charge d’Affaires of the
Delegation of the European Commission to Belarus Mr. Jean-Eric Holzapfel. While
talking in particular about the trade cooperation, Mr. Holzapfel noted that as
of today the only active agreement between Belarus and the European Union was the old
Agreement on trade of textile goods of 1993 and he added the Partnership and
Cooperation Agreement between Belarus and the European Union was frozen
in 1995. In the meanwhile the Eastern Partnership Programme offers to Belarus significantly wider opportunities
for economic growth.
For Belarus the rapprochement with the European
Union countries has recently became of extreme importance. In the light of the
world economic crisis, as well as after the recent exacerbation of the relations
with Russia (so-called “milk wars”, gas issues,
losses of export markets for Belarusian goods in the East), directing towards
the West in the field of economy and diversification became extremely
important. For instance, the negative balance in the area of external trade of
the goods and services from Belarus has surpassed 2 billion US Dollars from
the beginning of 2009 and increased by 44.6% in April. Economists, experts
believe that there is only one solution to this issue, i.e. via re-balancing of
the external trade.
For BelarusEurope is a gigantic selling market
The
European Union sets up a long-term task for itself, i.e. to stimulate the
creation of a network of profound trading zones between the countries. In the
perspective it could also mean a possible creation of the “Economic Union of
the EU neighbouring states”
In Belarus there is an overproduction of
grocery goods that could be supplied to the European markets after being processed.
In the view of both the Minsk authorities and Brussels, the participation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership
Programme would be beneficial first of all for the economic integration, energy
security and political rapprochement of the country with the European Union
Member States.
Belarus should significantly increase the
expert volume to the European Union countries. The United Europe is a huge
community with almost 500 million population and a spanlessmarket.
The First Vice-Prime Minister of the Belarusian government Mr. Vladimir
Semashko thinks that “
Belarus should think how to supply there
more and more, so that the trade opportunities expanded to the extent of the
free-trade zone. Moreover, we are interested in returning Belarus into the Common Preferences System
at least, and that before 2010 all economic sanctions were lifted from Belarus”.
Awaiting
for investments...
The First
Vice-Prime Minister Mr. Vladimir Semashko quoted that in the course of the past
seven years the average annual growth of the Gross Domestic Product constituted
9.5%, while the growth rate of capital investment constituted 20-30%. So far
the country has been developing at its own cost, from innovation funds and
Belarusian banking system. However all the previous achievements were based on
equipment and technologies of the past years, that have physically and morally degraded.
The Eastern Partnership could assist the Belarusian industry and agriculture to
modernize and to re-equip the economy.
Belarus is in great need for investment and
contemporary foreign and joint venture companies. New enterprises mean new working
places, increase of the budget, GDP. In November last year a governmental
delegation of Belarus took part in the London Investment
Forum. According to the information received from the Deputy Foreign Minister
of Belarus Andrey Evdochenko, out of foreign investment attracted in 2008, the
share of the European Union constituted 2.8 billion US Dollars (out of 6.5
billion US Dollars of the overall volume of the foreign investment).
In the
first quarter of 2009 400.3 million US Dollars of foreign investment were
attracted for financing investment projects. The state bodies of Belarus provide with the following data: as
of 1st June 2009 there were 55 investment projects financed from the foreign
investment (that includes organization of the production of the leaf-glass at
the “Gomelshklo” factory, renovation of the airplane park of the “Belavia”
company, reconstruction of the Minsk Heating and Electricity Station-5).
Belarus as a bridge between the East
and the West
Belarus is often proud and boasting about
its transit status however it has not done much so far to use its entire
capacity. The today’s issue is not only about the transit of oil an gas to
Europe however also about the transit from Russia or from Belarus of the
electricity, issue of the increase of the transit of gas (“Yamal – Europa-2”).
More over, Belarus also has to develop automobile
transit highways. Ukraine is proposing to develop the
automobile corridor South-North and to link the countries of the Black and Baltic sea basins. Everyone would benefit from
this.
Therefore
the Eastern Partnership Programme envisages both direct and indirect economic
benefits, as well as support to the social sphere. All this should be directed
first of all for the benefit of the Belarusian people.
The
President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that Minsk has a serious and pragmatic intention:
to implement concrete road and pipeline construction projects, infrastructure
improvement projects, liberalization of trade and creation of free-trade zone,
development of a transport corridor that should attract 1 billion Euro of
investment, “people need to feel the practical benefits of this Programme”.
