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Thaw is slow in coming

The Nordic Council Vice-president, Per-Kristian Foss from Norway, visited the European Parliament on 21 March where he met the Polish Vice-president Protasiewicz, a Danish and a Swedish MEP, as well as the Belarus office in the EU's new Foreign Ministry. The Nordic Region and Europe both want to support democratic development in Belarus close to the Baltic Sea Region.

Mar 22, 2013

Photographer: Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org

"We are waiting for signs of a thaw in Minsk. It would be a positive signal if the Swedish Embassy could once again operate in Minsk. First and foremost, the regime must release the political prisoners, some of whom were arrested in conjunction with the Presidential election two years ago.

The weather is just as cold in the Nordic Region as it is in Belarus but the latter is also marked by a political cold which has given it the title of Europe's last dictatorship.

Per-Kristian Foss, doubles as Vice-president and Belarus observer in the Presidium. Over the last two years he has hosted seminars in Vilnius in co-operation with the Baltic Assembly, where the opposition politicians and representatives for human rights groups in Belarus have discussed developments. From 2007 until the Presidential election in Belarus in December 2010 representatives from the Parliament also attended, and in the summer of 2010 it was possible to hold a round table discussion in Minsk. But all contact with the official bodies in Belarus froze after the arrest of several presidential candidates.

The Brussels visit showed that the EU has an interest in Nordic commitment in the east. The EU supports several major programmes in conjunction with the Nordic Council of Ministers such as EHU, the university in exile in Vilnius. The Nordic Region and Europe want to support democratic development, but in contrast to the a few years ago there are no positive signs from the current regime. Experience from Eastern Europe in the 1980s and in North Africa now show, however, that things can change quickly e.g. if the economic situation becomes too desperate or if those in power become too isolated from the majority of the people.

The most recent seminar in Belarus in November 2012