European official: Belarus will have a chance to join the European Union
A competent official from Berlin explained the sense of the programme “Eastern Partnership” and expressed the EU’s opinion about the ways of handling Lukashenka’s “games”. Нашым суразOne of the EU foreign policy advisers became our interlocutor. The meeting was not recorded and no pictures were taken.
The politician promised to reveal important moments of relations between the European Union and Belarus “as frankly as possible” and asked to keep his anonymity because of it. The conversation started with a clear explanation of the concept of the “Eastern Partnership” project.
EU official: “We are planning to include six countries in the programme – Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In fact, the first three states will only have to make a little step towards joining the European Union. Not a single European politician could announce it to mass media. Participation in the project is practically the same as membership in the European Union. The only exceptions are two issues: a member of “Eastern partnership” will not be able to use all the privileges of EU member states in agriculture and to influence decisions of the European Parliament”.
The politician implied that Belarus and Moldova had a better change to join the EU in comparison with Ukraine. It can be explained by conflicts in the political administration of “the yellow-blues”.
Privileges of members of “Eastern Partnership” were announced at the meeting:
1) collective security;
2) involvement of economies in the European market if the sate is a member of the World Trade Organization;
3) gradual cancellation of visas;
4) common energy network, the country will receive fuel from European partners if it is not received from suppliers for some reason.
It sounds wonderful, but why don’t European mass media discuss the good Belarus’ chance to join the European Union?
Official: “Common Europeans will not understand us. People will say: “Why should we help them and feed them?” However, politicians understand that Belarus is a strategic partner. We are hoping for a long-term prospect. We are ready to accept your country and its President to “Eastern Partnership”. After Alyaksandr Lukashenka gets the club membership card, we will ask him to follow the club’s rules. Lukashenka understands that Europe will give him more that Russia. It is evident”.
The official also explained the main terms of the European Union:
“At the moment, it is a refusal to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia because it contradicts to the international legislation. Recurrences of democracy are also unacceptable”.
The official explained that the fate of “Eastern Partnership” would be decided in Prague on May 7. However, the decision whether to invite Alyaksandr Lukashenka to Prague will be taken on March 19.
Official: “We will have time for maneuvers from March 19 till May 7. Lukashenka is an experienced and unpredictable politician. However, if we decide not to invite him to Prague, we would like to see the head of the Council of Ministers Sidorski and the Foreign Minister Martynau there. That will be the level. It would be better then inviting representatives of the opposition of NGO”.
Photo by: europa.eu
The politician promised to reveal important moments of relations between the European Union and Belarus “as frankly as possible” and asked to keep his anonymity because of it. The conversation started with a clear explanation of the concept of the “Eastern Partnership” project.
EU official: “We are planning to include six countries in the programme – Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In fact, the first three states will only have to make a little step towards joining the European Union. Not a single European politician could announce it to mass media. Participation in the project is practically the same as membership in the European Union. The only exceptions are two issues: a member of “Eastern partnership” will not be able to use all the privileges of EU member states in agriculture and to influence decisions of the European Parliament”.
The politician implied that Belarus and Moldova had a better change to join the EU in comparison with Ukraine. It can be explained by conflicts in the political administration of “the yellow-blues”.
Privileges of members of “Eastern Partnership” were announced at the meeting:
1) collective security;
2) involvement of economies in the European market if the sate is a member of the World Trade Organization;
3) gradual cancellation of visas;
4) common energy network, the country will receive fuel from European partners if it is not received from suppliers for some reason.
It sounds wonderful, but why don’t European mass media discuss the good Belarus’ chance to join the European Union?
Official: “Common Europeans will not understand us. People will say: “Why should we help them and feed them?” However, politicians understand that Belarus is a strategic partner. We are hoping for a long-term prospect. We are ready to accept your country and its President to “Eastern Partnership”. After Alyaksandr Lukashenka gets the club membership card, we will ask him to follow the club’s rules. Lukashenka understands that Europe will give him more that Russia. It is evident”.
The official also explained the main terms of the European Union:
“At the moment, it is a refusal to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia because it contradicts to the international legislation. Recurrences of democracy are also unacceptable”.
The official explained that the fate of “Eastern Partnership” would be decided in Prague on May 7. However, the decision whether to invite Alyaksandr Lukashenka to Prague will be taken on March 19.
Official: “We will have time for maneuvers from March 19 till May 7. Lukashenka is an experienced and unpredictable politician. However, if we decide not to invite him to Prague, we would like to see the head of the Council of Ministers Sidorski and the Foreign Minister Martynau there. That will be the level. It would be better then inviting representatives of the opposition of NGO”.
Photo by: europa.eu
