European Belarus campaign to collect votes for Belarus’s integration to EU (Video) 24

A beginning of the European Belarus national civil campaign was announced in Minsk on 24 January. According to the initiators of the campaign, its objective is independence security and successful development of the country, what is possible only by integration of Belarus to the EU. As Andrei Sannikov, international coordinator of Charter’97, emphasised on the press conference in Minsk, “integration to the EU is not only an effective course for today’s Belarus, but also a vital necessity.”

“Under the rule of Lukashenka in Belarus, 15 states have joined the EU, including such neutral before and developed countries as Austria. It is evidence that a EU model is rather attractive. Political, social and economic problems are solved more in deed, not in word there. While the authorities in Belarus, having practically ruined the economy of the country, got down to squeeze the last out of common people by depriving them of benefits,” Sannikov stressed.

He also said the Belarusian regime continued to ignore 12 offers of the EU, after fulfilment of which the EU is ready to cooperate with the official Minsk. “Release of Zmiter Dashkevich is not a demonstration of the fact that the authorities stand ready to fulfil these conditions. The main requirement of the EU is to release all political prisoners and stop persecution of the opposition. There are more than 50 people in the prison on Akrestin Street,” Sannikov noted.

Mikola Statkevich, leader of the Social Democratic Party (“Narodnaya Gramada”), former political prisoner, one of the initiators of the European Belarus campaign, told about main objectives of the campaign, one of which is popularisation of the idea of Eurointegration in the Belarusian society.

“We are going to enlist a large amount of volunteers to collect signatures of Belarusian citizens under the statement to the EU on Belarus’s integration to the European Union. Belarus has two ways today: Russia and the EU. But the EU, unlike Russia, doesn’t make such absurd demands as loss of independence and destruction of the language,” the politician said.