France’s ambassador: EU is ready to help Belarus on the way of democratisation

The European Union counts on developing the neighbourhood policy with Belarus this year, but only after political prisoners are released and free parliamentary election are held, Mireille Musso, French ambassador to Minsk said to journalists.

According to her, the European Union welcomes the release of three important prisoners. Ms Musso hopes other prisoners will be released soon and people won’t be imprisoned for their beliefs in Belarus. She emphasised that the EU has a common European policy towards Belarus. “The European Union is ready to pursue a more active good neighborliness policy towards Belarus, to help the Belarusian state in strengthening the independence,” the ambassador said.

According to Ms. Musso, the EU pursues the same aim regardless of the country-EU member. The objective of the policy is to afford the democratic forces to express their opinions. The diplomat expressed hope that the parliamentary elections in Belarus, which are due this year, will be free and will comply with the democratic principles.

The French ambassador said she knew Mr. Lukashenka and the authorities of the country want closer relation with the EU. She said the EU hopes that the year 2008 will see Belarus making progress on democratic reform.

“I hope that owing to the efforts of the Belarusian authorities, 2008 will become a year of development of cooperation with the European Union so that the European good neighborliness policy could take full effect in Belarus,” Ms Mireille Musso emphasised.

Speaking about possible reduce in price of Schengen visa for Belarusians, Ms. M. Musso declared she would like to believe the issue on Schengen visa cost will be discussed in year 2008 in the light of democratic development of Belarus and neighbourhood policy development.