BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/04/2009

Czech Senate against inviting Belarussian leaders to Prague

Prague - Senators from the Czech Senate commission on support for democracy around the world are against the invitation of Belarus to a summit on the EU Eastern Partnership that is to be held in Prague in two weeks, commission head Vlastimil Sehnal said.

Participants in today's commission meeting expressed their resolute disagreement with the invitation, Sehnal (Civic Democrats, ODS) said.

Previously, the invitation was also condemned by representatives of the Belarussian opposition against the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus criticised it, too.

He said he would not shake hands with Lukashenko and would not receive him at Prague Castle if he arrived to attend the EU-Eastern Partnership summit in May.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg invited Belarus to the summit on behalf of the Czech EU presidency.

He extended the invitation at his meeting with Lukashenko in Minsk last week.

It is not yet clear whether Belarussian representatives will arrive in Prague and who will represent Belarus.

According to unofficial information from the Czech Foreign Ministry sources Lukashenko's arrival in Prague is unlikely.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told CTK that Minsk has not yet informed whom it would send to the summit.

"I think that we should not allow him to leave the plane," Sehnal said, referring to Lukashenko.

He said Lukashenko's regime had not even issued entrance visas for foreign legislators and that Lukashenko refused to receive European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

"It would not be good to welcome him in Prague," Sehnal said. In the past, his commission focused on the help to people persecuted by the Belarussian regime.

According to Czech diplomacy, the invitation has been consulted with other members of the European Union that recently decided to start a dialogue with Belarus.

Last October, the EU softened some of the sanctions imposed on the Belarussian repressive regime.

Belarus is one of the six post-Soviet countries with which the EU intends to cooperate within its Eastern Partnership programme.

Sehnal praised the EU's effort to curb Russian influence over neighbouring Belarus as important but said that it was not yet time for Lukashenko to walk along Prague streets.

Source:

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-senate-against-inviting-belarussian-leaders-to-prague/372703

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