Sannikov and Kwasnewski discussed the situation in the region

The leader of the European Belarus civic campaign Andrei Sannikov met a former president of Poland Alexander Kwasnewski.

The main topics of the meeting, that took place in Warsaw on 18 June, were the situation in Belarus and Poland and European Union’s policy towards the Lukashenka regime. Four years ago Alexander Kwasnewski headed a group, which prepared the report ‘A European Alternative for Belarus’.

“It was important to me to meet Alexander Kwasnewski, since he announced the creation of the movement Europe Plus, which will nominate its candidates for the European Parliament elections next year. I asked him for the issue of Belarus to be present in the movement’s campaign. We discussed possible approaches towards the strategy on Belarus. In his report of four years ago president Kwasnewski spoke of good perspectives for Belarus, should its rapprochement with the EU proceed. It is clear that it is impossible with the dictatorship, and as for today the Lukashenka regime is perceived not only as a brutal dictatorship, but also as an obstacle on the path of normal development for Belarus.

We also discussed the situation in the Ukraine and its possible development in the course of the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for 2015. Alexander Kwasnewski together with a former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox are co-chairmen of a monitoring group on Ukraine.

Of course, we discussed the situation with Belarusian political prisoners and the necessity of a principled position of all politicians able to influence it and achieve their release. President Kwasnewski agreed that Europe needs a strategy towards Belarus, and that the policy of one-time measures is not reasonable”, - Andrei Sannikov told.