29 June 2008
Leaders of European organizations realize that Belarus should not be in isolation, House of Representatives speaker says

The leaders of European organizations realize that Belarus should not be in isolation, which is evidenced by recent meetings with representatives of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, Vadzim Papow, chairman of the House of Representatives of the Belarusian National Assembly, told reporters in Minsk on Saturday.

“We always tell them that if they don’t meet us half-way but put forward more and more demands, this will never do,” Mr. Papow said. “They themselves understand this now.”

“Our relations will be developing upward, no matter how much someone may want it to be to the contrary,” Mr. Papow said.

According to him, Andrea Rigoni, special rapporteur on Belarus in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), is expected to visit Minsk in July.

Mr. Papow confirmed the Belarus authorities’ readiness to invite foreign parliamentary organizations to observe parliamentary elections to be held in the country this fall.

Mr. Papow noted that one should not tie up relations between Belarus and the European Union with the outcome of the forthcoming elections. “These are private statements by certain persons and we are tolerant to them,” he said.