Belarus Advocates Visa-Free Procedures with EU 11:44, 06/01/2006
For Belarus, trade and economic cooperation with EU is the obvious highlight of its foreign policy, Interfax reported referring to the 2006-2010 program of social and economic advance of that country.
"Promoting integration ties with the countries outside CIS will be targeted at completing the entry into the WTO, bolstering cooperation with IMF, World Bank, IFC, EBRD," the program says. "The purpose is to raise loans, attract engineering support to solve burning issues of economy`s advance as well as to deepen cooperation with EU."
Trade and economic cooperation with new members of the European Union is in the center of attention of the program, first of all because of "their geographic vicinity and established ties that are mutually beneficial and based on mutual interests." Another highlight is "declining discriminatory actions, lifting trade limits in respect of Belarus goods."
What`s more, as if ignoring the general attitude of Europe towards Belarus, the program calls for establishing "common European economic area" and for introducing the visa-free procedures between Belarus and EU in the long view.
It was only in September 2005, when the European Parliament passed a special resolution on Belarus, which condemned repressive actions taken in the country against the Union of Belarus Poles and never-ending persecution of activists standing for the rights of the Polish minority there.
Moreover, Brussels has been continuously criticizing Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, blaming violation of democracy and freedom of speech on him. Lukashenko and some of top-ranked officials of the country were even recommended to pay no visits to the member states of EU.
Dear Colleagues. Remember, please, you are expected to refer to the Charter`97 Press Center when using the site materials. News export , javascript-informer
, javascript-informer
