Alena Zuikova: The report made by Justas Paleckis will be of great importance to Belarus

In the report prepared by the Lithuanian European Parliamentary Justas Paleckis about the state of the European and Belarusan relations one shouldn’t wait that the interests of Lithuania will prevail.

This opinion shared Alena Zuikova, the representative of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus” in Brussels, who was on an internship in the European Parliament in Justas Paleckis’ Office.

Let us recall that on March 18-21 Justas Paleckis, the European Parliament's rapporteur on Belarus, deputy of the Social Democratic Faction of Lithuania is on a visit to Minsk. In the course of his visit the European Parliamentary will prepare a report on the state of Belarusan and European affairs.

The research for the summit in Vilnius

“It seems to me that this report will be of great importance for Belarus, as such large-scale researches were not carried out for years. And it will be much more important than the resolutions on the situation in Belarus adopted by the European Parliament on a rather regular basis”, - said Alena Zuikova.

The report will be ready before the summit of the Eastern Partnership that is to take place in Lithuania this autumn. This summit is concurrently timed to the presidency of Lithuania in the EU. So there is no wonder that it is Justas Paleckis, the Lithuanian European Parliamentary who is involved in its preparation.

Alena Zuikova noted that the report is essentially self-initiated, i.e. its preparation is suggested by Justas Paleckis himself, who is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is in the course of this committee that the report will be examined in the first place. This is going to happen before the summer recess in the work of the European Parliament.

The preparation of the report within the scope of the core committee presupposes that the situation in Belarus will be considered in the context of the foreign policy of the European Union, not in the context of the development policy questions or that of human rights.

It is only after the report is endorsed at the Committee level that it will be submitted for consideration and vote at the plenary session of the European Parliament.

In a positive vein

Currently it is rather difficult to calculate what effect the report will make on the EU policy in relation to Belarus, noted Alena Zuikova. “It largely depends on the stance the report will present. And this, in its turn, depends on the personal stance of the deputy”, - highlighted the representative of “EuroBelarus” in Brussels.

“For what I know, Justas Paleckis wanted to write this report in a positive vein and to make some suggestions of the possible way out from this deadlock in relations between Minsk and Brussels. Though it is hard to say how he will solve this problem”, - stated Alena Zuikova.

Compromise variant

Can it happen so that the report made by Justas Paleckis will predominantly reveal a pragmatic attitude, exercised by Lithuania in relation to Belarus?

“The pragmatic stance of Lithuania doesn’t draw much support in the EU, - noted Alena Zuikova. – As the interest of the reporter consists in adoption of his report, it will take into consideration the prevailing tendencies in the European Parliament. So its stance won’t be radical so that it will be recognized by the majority of the parliamentarians”.

Besides, we shouldn’t forget that together with Justas Paleckis the so-called “shadow reporters” from some other factions of the European Parliament will be working with the Belarusan problem.

“They will defend their stance. And the final report will anyway represent the compromise summary of all the groups’ work”, - Alena Zuikova suggested.

Speaking about the reasons why the Belarusan authorities provided the Lithuanian deputy with an opportunity to visit Minsk and hold a number of meetings there, the representative of “EuroBelarus” noticed that Justas Paleckis was never too critical about the Belarusan governing bodies.

“He already visited Belarus several times and participated in the election observation in Hrodna. He had no problems with getting a visa. Besides, the fact that this time he managed to come to Minsk easily can be perceived as a certain signal from the Belarusan authorities about their efforts to normalize the relations, bypassing the issue with the political prisoners”, - assumed Alena Zuikova.