BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/03/2008

Constructive talks with Belarus

Nordic and Baltic politicians held the second in a series of constructive roundtable discussions with representatives of the Belarussian parliament and opposition parties in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, on 10 March. Although the agenda concentrated on the role of the politician in a changing society, the actual contributions revolved mainly around climate change and energy policy, nuclear power in particular.

Belarus may have traumatic memories of Chernobyl in 1986, but the Minsk government is prepared to build a new nuclear plant in the same part of the country. Nordic representatives accounted for their widely differing attitudes to nuclear power. Anne-Mari Virolainen reported that a majority exists for more nuclear power in Finland, while Sweden has decided in principle to phase it out.

Asmund Kristoffersen and Kent Olsson represented the Nordic Council at the gathering. Mikhail Rusy represented the parliament in Minsk.

Some of the same politicians from the Nordic Council met their counterparts from Belarus for the first time 8-9 October 2007. The second seminar saw even more constructive debates, chaired by Dagfinn Hoybraten from Norway and Siv Fri?leifsdottir from Iceland. Relations between government and opposition in Belarus are tense, especially because many of the opposition have been subjected to imprisonment or others forms of harassment, and the debate about the general election in Belarus this September was indeed heated. In the main, however, both sides managed to concentrate on swapping experiences with political colleagues from the neighbouring countries.

At the end of the day, Siv Fri?leifsdottir proposed that they meet again - after the general election in Belarus and before the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen 2009 - to discuss the same themes. Baiba Rizva from the Baltic Assembly suggested the labour market and migration be added to the agenda. Dagfinn Hoybraten mentioned that the Nordic Council Environment Committee will visit Minsk in June. He also suggested "an arena" for co-operation between young people e.g. involving the Nordic Youth Council, and a Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Minsk, like the ones in the Baltic countries and North-West Russia.

The seminar in Vilnius has laid the foundations for more regular co-operation between the Nordic Region, the Baltic countries and Belarus.

Source:

http://www.norden.org/webb/news/news.asp?id=7734&lang=6

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