European Troika Not Coming to Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

An open congress of the European Parliament delegation on cooperation with Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova took place in Strasbourg. The situation in Belarus was discussed there. The head of the delegation Jan Wiersma in his interview to Radio Svaboda commented on the results of the congress and said that the visit of the Parliamentary Troika in Minsk planned for the end of January had been cancelled.

- The situation in Belarus was in agenda because initially in the end of last year there was a plan to send a mission of Troika– representatives of the European Parliament, OSCE and the Council of Europe – to Belarus. This discussion in our delegation and our Parliament was held to get prepared to this mission, but we had to cancel the visit because of the shortcomings of preparation. We have an impression that our visit is not welcomed.

Jan Wiersma explained that the visit of the Troika is not postponed but cancelled. But the most important in the Troika, according to him, is OSCE, because Belarus is a member of this organization, while it is not a member of the EU and the Council of Europe. Mr. Wiersma plans to attend the February session of the PA OSCE in Vienna, where the Belarusian question is to be discussed again.