MEP Rebecca Harms Not Permitted To Enter Belarus For 6 Hours

Rebecca Harms thinks that it is related to the fact that she had been included in the blacklist of persons banned from entering Russia for political reasons.

On April 24, 2016 a prominent German politician, president of The Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European parliament Rebecca Harms managed to come to Minsk and deliver a speech at the international conference Chernobyl +30. She has made a statement relating Chernobyl aftermaths and nuclear power in Europe, charter97.org was informed by a press release of the Belarusian Anti-nuclear campaign.

Rebecca Harms, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin policy in the EU, connects her detention with the fact that she had been included in the black list of persons banned from entering Russia for political reasons, considering cooperation of the border services of Russia and Belarus. Six hours after her detention in the border control zone of Minsk airport, Rebecca Harms was given permission for entering Belarus. As said by her, border guards had been carrying out consultations with someone at the highest level, probably with officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Belarus.

Rebecca Harms spoke at the international conference Chernobyl +30 on the invitation of the Belarusian Green Party. She spoke on the issues of Chernobyl aftermaths and construction of the new nuclear power plant in Belarus, the Belarusian Anti-Nuclear Campaign reports.

“30 years after Chernobyl, Ukraine and other counties have not still started to clear the zone of the NPP where the accident had taken place,” – Harms said. At the same time, as said by her, the European Union has already spent a vast amount of money on the New Safe Confinement project for the destroyed nuclear reactor, and Ukraine is to depend on external financing in this respect for a long time. “It speaks about irresponsibility of those who had been constructing and operating the reactor,” – she commented.

She assessed risks of nuclear power industry in Europe in general: “We do not know where the next accident is to take place, in which of the countries. I work with nuclear risks in the EU, and on my page I have a research by a Bulgarian expert, which informs that after 2006 the EU is rather close to a next nuclear accident, it could happen in France or in Germany. What we could do is to leave the nuclear cycle.” According to her, it is especially relevant right now, as terrorists make nuclear power plants in Europe their targets. “That’s exactly because nuclear power plants are ticking time bombs,” – Harms said.

According to the German politician, the experience of Chernobyl is a good foundation to put an end to atomic energetics: “Chernobyl has influenced the energy industry of Germany – it has finally changed and became a green one. And speaking about German experience, a renewable energy economy is much better than an economy of nuclear energy.”