Belarus Headlines

Promoting Visa-Free Regime for Belarus and Other Countries of the Eastern Partnership. In its statement of 25 October, the Council of the European Union underlined the importance of enhanced contacts between people and expressed its interest in receiving the European Commission's proposals for the negotiating directives for visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Belarus. The Office for a Democratic Belarus (ODB) strongly welcomes the prospect of visa negotiations between the EU and Belarus and will continue its efforts in promoting a visa free regime for the citizens of Belarus and other countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). In the framework of a project Paving the road towards visa-free travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and the EU that was initiated by the Public Association for an Open Society (PASOS) and supported by the European Stability Initiative (ESI), the Office will participate in activities aimed at promotion of closer integration and people-to-people contacts between the EaP countries and the EU. As official participant of the EaP Civil Society Forum (SCF) II, the ODB is planning to actively engage in the work of the sub-group on visas of the Working Group 1 of the Forum.