Lubomir Rehak: It is hard to imagine the European Union negotiating with the government which impinges upon its citizens’ rights :: Charter'97 :: News

“It is hard to imagine the European Union starting negotiating with the government which impinges upon its citizens’ rights, forcedly disperses the Svabodny Teatr’s (Free Theatre) first night or Pavel Sevyarinets book presentation, keeps in prison former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin. Nobody is going to ignore those facts”, temporary charge d’affaires of Slovakia to Belarus Lubomir Rehak declared yesterday in his interview with the BelaPAN. Thus the diplomat commented on the appearance of deputy foreign minister Valery Varanetsky at the international conference “Working Together for Consolidation of the European Policy of Good Neighborhood” in Brussels 3 September. Since 1 July Slovakia has been performing the function of the local EU chairmanship in Belarus on behalf of Portugal.

Lubomir Rehak remarked that the standpoint of the European Union on the possible opening of talks with Belarus including the issue of the visa granting procedure simplification was delivered to the Belarusian authorities over the diplomatic channels. “As a rule the matters dwelt upon at the diplomatic level are not published in the press. But if the Belarusian side was the first to declare that the European commission considers the talks on simplification of the visa granting procedure premature then it was necessary to specify what such reply was grounded by. People should get the complete information”. The diplomat stressed that the Belarusian side “provides only half of the information which beneficially depicts the standpoint of the official Minsk”, but keeps silent about “the problems with the democracy and human rights”.

According to Lubomir Rehak the European Union considers the talks on simplification of the visa granting procedure as premature “until the full-value dialogue within the framework of the European policy of good neighborhood starts”. ”This issue is a constituent part of the European policy of good neighborhood and the simplification of the visa granting procedure is a kind of a bonus , Lubomir Rehak remarked. But Belarus is eager to solve the visa granting issue without settling the problems concerning the society democratization”.

The full-value cooperation with Belarus within the framework of the European policy of good neighborhood may be feasible only upon implementation of a number of democratization conditions by the country, the diplomat declared. ”It so happens that everybody concentrates on those conditions without mentioning the benefits which are in store for Belarus, Lubomir Rehak pointed out. Deputy foreign minister Valery Varanetsky was invited to the conference for understanding the perspective procedure of the might-be partnership development”.