Belarus Headlines

Belarusian Christian Democrats and Greens Visiting Brussels: On the invitation of the Office for a Democratic Belarus and the Slovak foundation Pontis, delegation of young Belarusian pro-democracy activists visited Brussels on June 12-14. Among participants were two co-chairmen of the Belarusian Christian-Democracy, Aliaksei Shein and Vital Rymasheuski, as well as chairman of the Belarusian Party of Greens Aleh Novikau. The program of the visit included meetings with representatives of the EU institutions, missions of the EU countries based in Brussels, various human rights groups and the Belarusian diaspora in Belgium. One of the main aims of the visit was for the Belarusian parties to establish stronger ties with their respective European counterparts. Among topics being actively discussed were such as the ongoing dialogue between the European Union and the Belarusian authorities and possible scenarios of its development; questions of further human rights violations in Belarus, especially restriction of freedom of conscience and increased repressions against religious groups. Removal of Belarus from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the state of reformist forces in the country after the second congress of democratic forces are cases that raised a lot of interest on both sides.