Belarus Headlines

On 5 June, Filip Kaczmarek (EPP, Poland) was elected new chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Belarus. He replaces Jacek Protasiewicz, who is taking up his new duties as vice-president of the European Parliament. EU relations with Belarus have never been easy and official political cooperation has gone from bad to worse since the presidential elections of 2010. “Our task in the coming months will be to support the development of democratic civil society, including groups and independent media, where the situation continues to deteriorate”, said Kaczmarek. During the first meeting chaired by Mr Kaczmarek, members of the delegation unanimously adopted a proposal to submit Ales Bialiatski, a prominent Belarusian human rights defender chairman of the Human Rights Centre Viasna, as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.