Belarus delays to open European Commission's office in Minsk

The opening of the European Commission's representative office in Minsk is being delayed, with Belarus Foreign Ministry's spokesman Andrei Papou maintaining that the issue "is under study by government institutions", reports Charter'97.  In April 2007, the Belarusian authorities gave a go-ahead to the European Commission to open an office in Minsk. The government said then that the move was justified by the implementation of "a normal working process for the development of relations with the European Union".

However, EU's Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Benitta Ferrero-Waldner stressed in September that the procedures associated with the opening of the office in Minsk were pushing on in a very slow pace.