AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, LITHUANIA CALLS FOR A MORE ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION FOR THE SITUATION IN BELARUS
On 12 January at the meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, dedicated to the exchange of views on the situation in Belarus, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Evaldas Ignatavičius said that Lithuania’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called on the international community to actively engage in search of a solution for the situation in Belarus.
At the extraordinary meeting, the Foreign Vice-Minister requested the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament to urge Belarusian authorities to reconsider the decision not to extend the mandate of the OSCE Office in Minsk. The participants of the debate approved of Lithuania’s proposal to urge Belarusian authorities to extend the activities of the OSCE Office in Minsk.According to Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius, the Government of Belarus itself should be interested in extending the OSCE activities in Belarus.
The Vice-Minister said that support to the civil society should become an important element of Europe’s policy towards Belarus.
The Lithuanian diplomat stressed the importance of the European Parliament’s support to the European Humanities University of Belarus based in Vilnius. President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek supported Lithuania’s suggestion to continue the European Union’s support to the activities of the European Humanities University in Vilnius.
The Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius said that the facilitation of visa regime for ordinary citizens of Belarus sent a necessary signal to the Belarusian society.
The participants of the meeting were informed about the initiative of the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė - the letter to the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on the facilitation of visa regime for ordinary Belarusian citizens.
The meeting on Belarus of the Committee on Foreign Affairs was also attended by the head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) election observation mission to the presidential election in Belarus, Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, Chair of the Belarusian Movement for Freedom Aliaksandr Milinkevich, Vice-Chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrei Aliaksandrau and EU enlargement and neighbourhood policy Commissioner Štefan Füle.
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