European parliament not to invite Belarus lawmakers to Euronest

The European Parliament is set to invite the whole spectrum of the political opposition ranging from Communists to Christian Democrats as well as representatives of NGOs, including ethnic and religious minorities, Jazaek Saryusz-Wolski, deputy chairman of the European Parliament's delegaion to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.

Jazek Saryusz-Wolski: "(We are going to invite) the whole spectrum of political parties: Communists, Socialists, Christian Democrats, Movement for Freedom, Belarus Popular Front, United Civic Party, etc. We will also invite some segments of the civil society, including independent trade unions, Belarusian Association of Journalists as wll as religious and ethnic minority groups that are under pressure".

According to Saryusz-Wolski, consultations on some parties and NGOs are yet to be finalized, so invitations have not been sent out yet.

All the representatives of Belarus will not have a status of full-fledged delegates. They will be observers. They will have almost all the rights of delegates, except the right to vote. Actually, there is no big difference, stresses Jacek Daryusz-Wolski, because Euronest is a consultative assembly, not a decision-making body.

Syarhei Maskevich, chairman of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, told the European Radio for Belarus that he knew nothing about the deiciosn on 10 observers from the Belarusian parliament. If it actually happens this way, it will put Belarus' participation in the Eastern Partnership under threat.

Syarhei Maskevich: "We will discuss our steps. In this case, the Prague Declaration remains just on papers. Of course, we will discuss whether Belarus should take part in the Eastern Partnership program"

In 2009, Europeans were in talks with official Minsk over the participation of the Belarusian delegation in Euronest in the 5+5 format (five MPs + five opposition representatives). But as Jazek SAryusz-Wolski told Euroradio earlier the Belarusian side had rejected this proposal.

Syarhei Maskevich maintains even if Belarus MPs were invited to take part in the 5+5 format, he would defnitely refuse, because he insists only on the format with 10 representatives of the Belarusian parliament.

When the European Radio for Belarus quoted Maskevich as saying to Saryusz-Wolski, he said:

"We don't recognize the Belarusian "House of Representatives". Nobody is expecting them to agree. Actually, they don't have to".