Perspektiva business association decides to join campaign for promoting European values in Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The Perspektiva business association has decided to join the European Coalition founded by the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada.” The decision was made by the Perspektiva Coordinating Council on November 29, Anatoly Shumchenko, chairman of the association, told BelaPAN.

The European Coalition says that it aims to promote European values in Belarus, thus bringing the country closer to the European Union. The Grazhdansky Forum (Civil Forum) youth group led by Vladimir Novosyad and Pavel Severinets’ unregistered youth group called Malady (Young) Front have also announced their decision to join the coalition, which reportedly unites currently more than 20 organizations.

Mr. Shumchenko said that his association, initially founded to advance the economic interests of businesspeople, “has grown into an organization” that realizes “that economic problems cannot be solved without the change of the government.”

“We cooperated with political parties previously, but now the cooperation is based on the document,” he said.

He said that the Perspektiva association is ready to take an active part in the development of pro-democracy forces’ campaign for the 2006 presidential election. “We are a non-governmental organization and do not have the right to be involved in politics officially, but we can be involved in it in the framework of the coalition,” he noted.

In addition, the Perspektiva association plans to merger into a united Social Democratic Party with the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” and the Belarusian Women’s Party “Nadzeya.”