BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
17/04/2009
EU invites Belarus' Lukashenko to East Partnership summit - Summary
Author : DPA
Prague/Minsk - The European Union invited on Friday Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko to a Prague summit at which EU leaders plan to launch their so-called Eastern Partnership initiative - aimed at tying six ex-Soviet countries closer to the 27-member bloc, officials said. Belarus and Lukashenko have been described by the administration of George W. Bushas Europe's "last dictatorship."
Outgoing Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country chairs the EU until June 30, delivered the invitation for Belarus while meeting the president, said Schwarzenberg's spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova.
There was no immediate response from Minsk as to whether Lukashenko would accept the invitation, she added.
In a sign of a potential thaw in relations with the West, the Belarusian leader will visit Italy and meet Pope Benedict XVI in late April, the Italian news agency Ansa reported citing sources in the Vatican.
The Belarusian president on Friday, however, made no official statement on whether he intended to accept the EU invitation. His office declined to comment.
Lukashenko, whom the previous US administration billed Europe's last dictator for holding a tight grip on his country, has earlier indicated that he may not attend the summit planned for May 7.
"I don't think it really matters who goes to Prague: whether I do or somebody else does," he told the Euronews television channel earlier this year.
Several Belarusian opposition leaders, grouped in the Belarusian People's Front, warned in a joint statement that the invitation for Lukashenko would "in fact legitimise dictatorship, give support to the lawlessness of his regime and the illegal decisions it has taken."
By inviting the Belarusian leader on behalf of the EU, the Czech Republic, which has long actively backed the anti-Lukashenko political opposition, appeared to reverse its policy of isolating undemocratic regimes. In 2002, Prague denied Lukashenko a visa for a NATO summit held then in the Czech capital.
In a Czech Television interview, Schwarzenberg praised EU's new course of entering into dialogue. "The EU has taken the right path," he said.
On Friday, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an outspoken EU critic who has been friendly to Russia and has so far shown little interest in human rights in Belarus, slammed the outgoing Czech government for the invitation.
"The president is surprised by the double standards which are being used and declares that he will neither shake hands with Mr Lukashenko nor accept him at the Prague Castle," Klaus' spokesman Radim Ochvat said in a statement.
The EU hopes to bring closer Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine through increased aid and partnership deals in return for democratic and pro-market reforms. The plan, however, does not offer full EU membership to the six countries.
"We openly discussed with ... the president that the Eastern Partnership is not an altruistic project," Schwarzenberg said in a statement. "It is mutually important for us that we create safe environment for investment and become prosperous neighbours."
The programme is seen as a bid to mitigate Russia's influence in its neighbourhood. Originally proposed by Sweden and Poland as an Eastern counterweight to the France-pushed initiative to boost ties in the Mediterranean, the Eastern Partnership plan gained further significanc after Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008.
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