PACE Sets Up Sub-Commission for Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Chairman of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly Peter Shider proclaimed the formation of a PACE sub-commission for Belarus during the September 23 press-conference in Strasbourg, where the PACE session opened today.

The commission will monitor the relations between CoE and Belarus, which is supposed to help make their relations more concrete. The official underscored that “there’s nothing new in Belarus”, expressing desire to see Belarus as one of the CoE member-states. PACE plenary on Belarus, according to Shider, does not mean that there’s a democratic process underway in Belarus, but rather that the European MPs are “seriously concerned by the Belarusian issue”.

Peter Shider declined to comment on the recently emerged problems in the union state construction between Putin and Lukashenko, referring to the “political politeness principle”. He added that the situation is indeed kind of strange, but presents no serious problem whatsoever.