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European Commission drawing up program called European Dialogue for Belarus

The European Commission is drawing up a program called European Dialogue for Belarus that is expected to be unveiled in Brussels on March 29, Warsaw-based Belarusian rights activist Yuliya Slutskaya told BelaPAN.

On March 14, Belarusian experts held a meeting in the Polish capital to discuss the new program. "These are different experts who often have opposite views and who work on a package of reforms for Belarus in one way or another," said Ms. Slutskaya, who attended the meeting. "We gathered to discuss our vision for this package of reforms, what we expect from the EU program and what we want to see there."

The meeting was attended by, among others, Volha Stuzhynskaya, head of the Brussels-based Office for a Democratic Belarus; Andrey Yahoraw of the Center for European Transformations; Alyaksandr Adamyants of a think tank called New Europe; and Pavel Daneyka of the Research Center of the Institute for Privatization and Management.

Ms. Slutskaya would not speak about the program's details. EU representatives could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon.