BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/09/2005

To raise awareness about Belarus

Poland wants that the UE representative in Minsk comes from other union state than Poland. It is vital that the situation in our eastern neighbour becomes a European issue, says the Polish foreign ministry.

The issue of Belarus is to be brought to the European parliament on Thursday by the leader of the liberal Civic Platform Donald Tusk and Anzelika Borys, head of the Polish Union in Belarus who had been deprived of her office by the authorities in Minsk. The Belarus issue has become a joint strategy of the governement and the opposition.Prime minister Marek Belka said it is one of the priorities of Poland's foreign policy to make Europe realise the gravity of the situation.

'It is a top priority to introduce the question of Belarus to European discussion in a similar way the issue of Ukraine was introduced several months agao'.

The controversies between Poland and Belarus arouse after authorities in Minks dleegalised elections to the Union of Poles grouping the Polish minority resident in Belarus, but now the issue has crossed the Polish Belrus border.

The head of the European Commission has decided to send its representative to Minsk, Poland does not want it to be a Polsish diplomat, since this country stresses that it is not a local conflic between Poland and Belrarus, but a problem with the Belarus system. European affairs commentator Jaroslaw Petz says that there are obvious reasons which point why the EU representative should not be Polish.

Tomasz Sajewicz from RP Belarus section, doubts however that Poland's efforts will bring about any changes in Belarus and intensify EU's interest in that country.

For the time being the EU is represented in Minsk by its ambassador, the charge d' affairs will be appointed in a few weeks and it will be his decisions and opinions which will influence EU's policy towards Belarus.

Source:

http://www.radio.com.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=27168&j=2