Belarusian Opposition Strives for EU Membership :: Charter'97 :: News

An article under such heading in today’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” describes a two-day long international conference “Belarus, EU – today’s realities and perspectives”, which ended last Sunday in Belostok.

Prominent politicians from Poland, Germany and Belarus engaged in the conference.

The newspaper points out concerns, raised by the Belarusian opposition and public organizations, that the EU will shut its doors for Belarus even before the Belarusian nation overthrows Alexander Lukashenko. This may happen despite the fact that most Belarusians are willing to see their country as part of EU.

The newspaper also reports that the Belarusian delegates at the conference expressed hope that Poland will turn into Belarus’ interests’ representative in the West. “Poland must deliver the following message to the West: Belarus is a European country and one day, when Lukashenko is gone, it will apply for the EU membership too,” – said the international coordinator of Charter’97 Andrei Sannikov in an interview to the Polish newspaper.

Falk Altenberger – head of Conrad Adenauer’s foundation and co-organizer of the conference – shared his belief that the western countries won’t keep Belarus in oblivion when extending EU frontiers.

- EU enlargement is round the corner. And we can’t leave Belarus alone to face her problems. However, it is vital for us to know what Belarusians expect from the new EU and what kind of cooperation they would prefer.

“Gazeta Wyborcza” writes that Belarusian representatives fear that following Poland’s accession to EU hard times will start for our small business – thousands of retailers from Grodno and Brest region may lose their sole source of income.