Kristian Vigenin: Belarus has excluded itself from Euronest

The first constituent meeting of Euronest will be held without the Belarusian delegation in March or in April. The Chair of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Kristian Vigenin has informed this to Euroradio. According to him, the Conference of EP’s Presidents gives the green light for the start without Belarus and there are no grounds to spin out time any longer.

Kristian Vigenin: “All the efforts to grant Belarus full-fledged participation were nullified by the Belarusian authorities on the main voting day on December 19, and their actions afterwards. Belarus excluded itself from the process this way. In view of the Mediterranean events there is no majority in the European Parliament which would stand for participation of a regime, totalitarian by its essence.

Our partners from other parliaments also understand that they can no longer stand for a full-fledged participation of Belarus in the Parliamentary Assembly, with such a situation. Now they are more ready to start without Belarus”.

Let us remind you, the speakers of parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia declared their common opinion on the necessity to include Belarusian MPs into Euronest. However, recent events in Belarus forced them to give up their previous position.

However, the parliaments of other “Eastern Partnership” countries did not agree to let representatives of the Belarusian opposition and civil society participate as observers.

Kristian Vigenin: “A difficult process of negotiations with our partners lasted for more than a year. We took a working decision that we could not substitute MPs with representatives of the opposition and the civil society. However, we will try to provide them with as much information as possible and also to include them into the Parliamentary Assembly’s discussions, when possible”.

Another important reason to launch Euronest without further delays is the necessity to remind about the importance of cooperation with the Eastern neighbours right now, taking into consideration the crucial events in the North of Africa.

Kristian Vigenin: “The whole attention is turned to our Southern neighbours, and there have been suggestions to transfer the financial support from the “Eastern Partnership” to the South. Such opinion seems dangerous. In spite of the important events in the Mediterranean world, we cannot abandon relationship with our Eastern neighbours. Thus, when Euronest starts working, it will remind that a lot of work needs to be done in the East as well. Besides, it is worth it to launch Euronest before the “Eastern Partnership” summit which will take place in the second half of the year”.

Kristian Vigenin still hopes that the next parliamentary election will meet the international standards, and in this case the vacant places reserved for Belarus in the Parliamentary Assembly will be occupied. A special working group on Belarus issues will be launched in Euronest with an aim to facilitate this. The group will “try to help the Belarusian authorities to create the conditions which would grant a more democratic and free parliamentary election”.

Let us remind you, an MEP Elisabeth Schrödter has underlined that the Belarusian MPs did not even protest against the brutal actions of the law-enforcement agencies on December 19, in an interview to Euroradio.

Elisabeth Schrödter: "They [the deputies of the House of Representatives] did not even declare any protest with regard to the recent events, intimidations, which are taking place in Belarus. That is why it is difficult for us to accept such people".

Let us remind you, the Parliamentary Assembly “Euronest” is planned to work in the form of a forum, which will monitor and analyze events, connected with the “Eastern Partnership” initiative. It will include 60 members of the European Parliament, and MPs from the national parliaments of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, 10 representatives of each parliament. The 10 places reserved for Belarus will stay vacant.