BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/04/2009

Lukashenko, Berlusconi discuss Belarus rapprochement with Europe

ROME, April 28 (Itar-Tass) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday discussed issues of Belarus' rapprochement with Europe, diplomatic sources in the Italian capital said after a dinner in honour of the Belarusian leader given at the government's Palazzo Chigi (Chigi Palace) in Rome that was prolonged for after midnight.

Italian government sources stressed that the meeting of Silvio Berlusconi and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini with Alexander Lukashenko "are not limited to the bilateral initiative, but are matching the European context."

Europe's attitude to Belarus, the same sources noted, is changing after "timid steps in this country towards observing human rights." Last year's parliamentary elections became, according to assessments of observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a step forward on this path, the same as the "release of some political prisoners." At the working dinner the Italian leaders again spoke about the importance of the observance of "democratic standards" for the gradual rapprochement between Belarus and Europe, according to diplomatic observers.

At the talks the sides also touched upon such an important humanitarian issue as the adoption of Belarusian children by Italian families. In recent years, many already prepared dossiers of documents were unilaterally frozen by Minsk, the Italian Foreign Minister said. However, from the beginning of 2009, in the view of Frattini, encouraging signals appeared that were evolved at the Rome meeting and that could in the short run result in a positive decision on several dozen specific cases.

It was stated that Italy has not decided yet on the level of its participation in the EU Eastern European partnership summit in Prague on May 7. However, Belarus has received a general invitation to the event and will decide on its own who will head its delegation at the summit, diplomats said.

The European Union invited earlier this month (Aprl 17) Belarusian President Alexander 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. 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. "The invitation is for Belarus and the president is its addressee as the head of state. But we do not have a confirmation that he will arrive," Opletalova told the German Press Agency DPA.

Lukashenko, whom the previous US administration billed Europe's last dictator for holding a tight grip on his country, has earlier suggested that he may not attend the summit to be held on May 7, according to DPA. "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. In 2002, the Czech Republic denied Lukashenko a visa for a NATO summit held then in Prague.

The EU hopes to bring closer Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine through increased aid and partnership deals. However, the plan does not offer full EU membership to the six countries, DPA said. The programme is seen as a bid to mitigate Russia's influence in its neighbourhood.

The Eastern Partnership is an organisation aiming to improve the political and economic trade-relations of the six Post-Soviet states of "strategic importance" - Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia with the European Union. Promotion of human rights and rule of law in former Soviet states has been reported to form the "core" of the policy of the Eastern Partnership. The EU draft of the EaP states that: "Shared values including democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights will be at its core, as well as the principles of market economy, sustainable development and good governance." The Partnership is to provide the foundation for new Association Agreements between the EU and those partners who have made sufficient progress towards the principles and values mentioned. Apart from values, the declaration says the region is of "strategic importance" and the EU has an "interest in developing an increasingly close relationship with its Eastern partners..."

The inclusion of Belarus prompts the question whether values or geopolitics are paramount in the initiative. EU diplomats agree that the country's authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has done little to merit involvement in the policy at this stage. But the EU fears Russia will strengthen its grip on Minsk if it is left out. It is, however, assumed that in the long-term, Lukashenko will become less important with time.

Apart from the largely symbolic Association Agreements, the Eastern Partnership process envisages legal "approximation" and joint "institution building," leading to the creation of a new free-trade zone embracing the 27 EU states and the six partners. The policy would see visa-free travel to the EU for the 76 million people - 46 million of them in Ukraine - living in the region. Steps toward "visa liberalisation" are to be taken on "a long-term perspective and on a case-by-case basis."

There are plans to model the concept on the Stabilisation and Association Process used by the EU in the Balkans, including a possible free trade area encompassing the countries in the region, similar to BAFTA (Baltic Free Trade Area) or CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement). A membership perspective for 2020 or later is not ruled out, either.

The Eastern Partnership was presented by the foreign minister of Poland with assistance from Sweden at the EU's General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on 26 May 2008. The Eastern Partnership was formally launched on March 20, 2009.

On Tuesday, the final day of his stay on the Apennines, Alexander Lukashenko will visit the Rome headquarters of the Sovereign Malthusian Order.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13884052&PageNum=0

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