Ivan Kaedjikov: Belarus Surely Has European Future :: Charter'97 :: News

During the international conference in Dortmund, which took place late last week, Radio Svaboda correspondent Vitaly Tsygalko interviewed Ivan Kaedjikov – head of the political affairs department of the Council of Europe, responsible for relations with Belarus.

- Does CoE keep an eye on local elections in Belarus and whether this campaign can influence relations between CoE and Belarus?

- The comments, shared by the Parliamentary Troika (EU, OSCE, CoE) on the presidential and parliamentary elections remain in effect. Belarus must develop decent electoral legislation, ensure candidates’ access to media, freedom of press and human rights.

However, CoE cannot monitor local elections, for it has never been invited to do so by the Belarusian authorities. No doubt, we still take interest in the situation development in Belarus, for your country remains candidate for CoE accession and we are always eager to respond to positive transformations there if any.

- How would you assess the current state of relations between Belarus and CoE? Did there occur any positive changes over the past few months?

- Briefly speaking, I would say these relations are very low-level. CoE keeps pursuing its open door policy, making our work available for the Belarusian governmental experts, who can freely investigate it. CoE Parliamentary Assembly continues to invite to its sessions representatives of various political forces – both from the “parliament” and opposition. We are ready to engage in a constructive cooperation with the government, but will insist on their fulfillment of the necessary conditions for the CoE membership.

- Do you think Belarus will ever join your organization and the European community in general? Seemingly, our present-day leadership doesn’t feel like joining the European structures, rather dooming itself to voluntary self-isolation.

At first let me disagree with your statement. I believe that both your president and government do want Belarus to become a CoE member. Otherwise why would they file application for accession to the CoE at all? In our turn, we are open for them and are looking forward to Belarus’ becoming a CoE member-state.

I’m convinced that Belarus has a European future. It is a European country in culture and people’s mentality. I saw that with my own eyes for I have lots of friends in Belarus. All your neighbors chose the European direction, even Russia. I can imagine no other future for Belarus in the 21st century, except European.