Ambassador of Belarus to the European Union, Vladimir Senko, has published an open letter to the leadership of the European Union. In his appeal, the diplomat accused the EU of "noncompliance with obligations" and "an unequal approach". Vladimir Senko accused the initiators of the Euronest programme — the parliamentary assembly for the Eastern Partnership- of" acting in a provocative manner" and" adopting a position of political extremism" .
In this case, the ambassador pounced his criticism on Euronest’s position, according to which Belarus has to be represented by five members of parliament and five representatives of civil society. Vladimir Senko considers such a proposal as discriminatory and offensive, European Belarus civil campaign’s official web-site informs.
Belarusian Ambassador reminded the MEPs of the decision taken by the European Council in October 2008. Then the European Council stated the necessity to depart from the policy of isolation of Belarus.
Vladimir Senko named the EU approach as «futile and harmful». He also accused the EU of irresponsibility and «impeding the strengthening of the independence of the young Belarusian state». The dialogue between Belarus and the EU should be established «fully respecting the national specificities and features of Belarus», the Ambassador said.
«Unfortunately, some of our partners in the EU, and especially in the European Parliament, appear unready to accept the philosophy of an equal and pragmatic approach to contacts with Belarus. They do not appear ready to show political courage and to reject the use of continuous pressure, finger-pointing and lecturing, all of which are approaches that have proven unproductive», Vladimir Senko stated.
Belarusian Ambassador informed that dialogue between the EU and Belarus has been established successfully in areas such as energy, transport, standardisation, agriculture and the environment. The diplomat also noted that they established cooperation in the sphere of human rights.
«Not everything satisfies our partners in Brussels, but, it is important to emphasise, Belarus’s fundamental expectations of the EU are also very far from being satisfied. This is the case in almost all areas of our co-operation, from politics to economics to people-to-people contact. We are still waiting for tangible results», the representative of official Minsk concluded his letter.
