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No EURONEST seats for Belarusian lawmakers, MEP says

Belarus’ delegation to the EU-Neighborhood East Parliamentary Assembly (EURONEST PA) will include only representatives of opposition organizations and civil society, Jacek Protasiewicz, head of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Belarus, said in an interview with BelaPAN.

He said that a decision to this effect had been made by MEPs representing the European Parliament in the EURONEST PA after studying the findings of the Parliament’s delegation that stayed in Belarus in late February.

After the Belarusian authorities rejected a composition formula whereby the country’s delegation to the EURONEST PA would include five members of the House of Representatives and five opposition politicians, the European Parliament decided that the delegation should not include Belarusian lawmakers altogether, according to Mr. Protasiewicz.

The delegation will have no right to vote at EURONEST sessions but will be able to make speeches, the MEP said.

Mr. Protasiewicz denied reports that a decision on the composition of Belarus’ delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly had been postponed by a month. He stressed that the European Parliament’s decision would not be changed but would be officially announced only in April as European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek plans to meet with the parliamentary speakers of all Eastern Partnership countries but Belarus on March 24 to explain the Parliament’s stance on Belarus and hold consultations on the further development of the EURONEST PA.

The composition of Belarus’ delegation has already been approved, according to Mr. Protasiewicz. It will include representatives of the United Civic Party, the “Spravedlivy Mir” (Just World) Belarusian Party of the Left, the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, the Belarusian Popular Front, the Movement for Freedom, the Rada (Council) of the Belarusian Intelligentsia, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, the Ekadom environmental group and the so-called “unofficial” Union of Poles in Belarus.

He stressed that the delegation would not include members of the House of Representatives.

It was earlier proposed that the EURONEST PA should consist of 60 members of the European Parliament and a 10-member delegation from each of the six post-Soviet states participating in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership program, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Many European politicians have suggested that opposition forces should necessarily be represented in the Belarusian delegation to the Assembly.

Minsk has insisted that the delegation should include only members of the National Assembly, which is not recognized as a legitimate parliament by the international community.