European policy, considering Belarus, sees only the state sector

European Commission

Presentation of the European Integration Index 2012 took place in Brussels. This was the first full-fledged publication, since the 2011 index was the pilot one.

The European Integration Index for Eastern Partnership Countries (http://www.eap-index.eu) is a comprehensive assessment of the processes of convergence with the European standards in all the six countries of the Eastern Partnership. The EU itself annually runs reports on the progress of the partner countries. The Index adds to this evaluation, having its own advantages. Thus, while drawing up the Index, a common methodology for all the six countries is used, allowing to obtain comparable data and an overall view of the region. The advantage of the Index is an easy-to-use visualization, which allows instantly comparing countries basing on plurality of different indicators.

What is the state of Europeanization in Belarus? European radars determine no Europeanization in Belarus. The government of Belarus is not involved in the bilateral relations within the EaP and thus, the European Commission and the European External Action Service have nothing to report on Belarus. While the Agreements on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area - the pride of European officials - are on the agenda in Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia, Belarus has not even signed the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement back in the mid-90s. Even with Azerbaijan, things are better as the negotiations on visa liberalization are being held. The European Commission has made a similar proposal to the official Minsk - but received no reply. The EC doesn’t even make reports on Belarus.

The European Integration Index, as a more flexible tool, evaluates the Belarusan situation, as well. The result is no surprise: based on the totality of indicators, Belarus is in the last place. However, in some areas Belarus shows surprisingly good results. For example, Belarus is the leader in the trade in services (Figure 1).

A good result Belarus shows also in the "participation of civil society" indicator (Figure 2). Based on the degree of involvement and influence of civil society in decision-making processes in European integration issues, Belarus is ahead of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

However, both the EU and the European Integration Index fall into the same trap set by the underlying grounds of the European Neighbourhood Policy. The Eastern Partnership project is designed in such a way that most of the work on the approximation of the partner country is done by state authorities. Official authorities make decisions about the reforms, government carries out these reforms, as well - they fix and implement certain principles and practices, thus either conscientiously fulfilling their own legislation or violating it.

The Neighbourhood Policy and the EaP set such an angle of view which from it is possible to see only the state. Why does the European Commission have nothing to report on Belarus? Because that Belarusan government refuses to begin a dialogue. And as Dzianis Melyantsou, the BISS senior analyst, noted in his speech at the presentation of the Index, the EU has no rather biting sticks, no rather mouthwatering carrots to engage the Belarusan government into the integration processes.

The situation may be solved, changing the angle of view. By doing this, it will be possible to notice that the significant changes take place in Belarus. It will be possible to consider what the National Platform for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum is. It will be possible to fix its role in domestic politics and in the Belarusan-European relations.