English

House of Representatives re-ratifies agreement on establishment of European Commission’s delegation in Minsk

The House of Representatives on December 12 passed once again the ratification bill for an agreement on the establishment of the European Commission’s delegation in Minsk.

The lower chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly passed the bill as far back as June 17, but the upper chamber, the Council of the Republic, rejected the bill at a closed-door meeting on October 9.

“It was inexpedient for the Council to approve the bill at that time,” Valyantsina Leanenka, a member of the House’s International Affairs Committee, explained to BelaPAN earlier this month. The text of the agreement has not undergone change, she said.

The accord was signed at the European Commission’s office in Brussels on March 7 by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union’s commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, and Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Varanetski.

Under the agreement, the delegation, its head and members, and their family members living together with them shall enjoy the rights, privileges and immunities provided for by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The European Commission applied to the Belarusian government for permission to open its delegation in the country as far back as 2005. The draft agreement was sent to Minsk at the same time. In April 2007, the Belarusian authorities gave their consent to opening the delegation, and the European Commission responded with sending the draft agreement once again. Afterward, there was no visible progress toward giving the consent a practical implementation. The foreign ministry linked that to the need to complete what was called all necessary internal procedures.

On October 19, 2007, Alyaksandr Lukashenka authorized the draft agreement to be the basis for negotiations about the “institution, privileges and immunities” of the delegation. He empowered Mr. Varanetski to hold the negotiations on behalf of Belarus.