Nordic Council: make Belarus a higher priority on the European agenda

15.10.14 | News
Kimmo Sasi
Photographer
Johannes Jansson/norden.org
"What has happened in Ukraine over the last year has drastically altered the situation in Eastern Europe and Belarus. The Nordic Council will do what it can to make the issue of Belarus a higher priority on the European agenda," says Kimmo Sasi, the Belarus rapporteur for the Nordic Council.

Nordic and Baltic parliamentarians met in Vilnius (Lithuania) on Wednesday with representatives of civil and human rights organisations and opposition politicians from Belarus. Their discussions included how the situation in Ukraine has affected Belarus and how Europe can become more involved in developments in the country. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was also represented at the meeting.

"We have promised to make the Belarus issue a higher priority on the European agenda and in our contacts with the European Parliament and the Council of Europe," Sasi explains.

"Events in Ukraine have made the people of Belarus afraid of what might happen to them and their country. The integrity and sovereignty of the nation was underlined and strongly supported at the meeting," Sasi says.

The opportunities for the younger generation to obtain a good education was highlighted as an important issue for the future.

"The Belarusian exile university European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius plays a key role in this. EHU is supported by both the EU and the Nordic countries through the Nordic Council of Ministers," the rapporteur explains.

The meeting of the Nordic Council, the Baltic Assembly, Belarusian NGOs, human rights organisations and Belarusian opposition parties not represented in parliament was the eighth in the series. Dialogue with the Belarusian parliament was broken off in 2010 due to the events that followed the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.