Belarus: MEPs to visit Minsk and Hrodna
A delegation of MEPs will travel to Belarus from 24 to 28 February for meetings with Belarusian authorities, civil society representatives and human rights defenders.
The purpose of the visit is for the newly elected Members of the bureau of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus, who will also be accompanied by the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Standing Rapporteur for Belarus, to familiarise themselves with the main topics of interest concerning EU-Belarus relations.
During their visit, MEPs will hold meetings with representatives of the Belarusian authorities, various other political forces, including members of the opposition, civil society actors, human rights defenders, thinks tanks and university students. They will also visit two EU-funded projects in the country – both in the Minsk and Hrodna regions.
Background
Due to the current rule of law and human rights situation in Belarus, the European Parliament has no formally established working relations with the National Assembly of Belarus. However, the last few years have seen some significant progress in EU-Belarus relations. This positive trend has been notably illustrated by Belarus' much appreciated participation in the multilateral formats of the Eastern Partnership policy, the qualitative and quantitative upgrade of EU financial and technical support to Belarus, as well as the recent agreements reached on visa facilitation and readmission – to which the European Parliament is yet to give its consent. Read more here.
In a spirit of “critical engagement”, as outlined at the Foreign Affairs Council of 15 February 2016, the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Belarus already travelled to Minsk in the past legislative term, in June 2015, July 2017 and, at Bureau level, in October 2018.
For press-related inquiries, the press officer at the EU delegation in Belarus is:
Paulina Lysiuk
Press and Information Officer
paulina.lysiuk@eeas.europa.eu
Kontakti:
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Viktor ALMQVIST
Press Officer