| Belarus calls for concretizing the activities of the Eastern Partnership initiative and making them more pragmatic, Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov told reporters following the informal summit of the foreign ministers of the EU member states and the Eastern Partnership partner states in Poland’s Sopot, BelTA has learnt.
“The subject and the purpose of the meeting was to review the first year of the work of the Eastern Partnership initiative. An extensive discussion was held. The meeting was informal, therefore there were no ceremonial statements, the participants focused on the analysis of the situation,” Sergei Martynov said. The policy Belarus pursued during the year was aimed to concretize the work within the Eastern Partnership and making it more pragmatic. This policy was upheld by almost all the countries. “More projects should be introduced. The projects should be relevant for the region,” the Belarusian Foreign Minister said. In his opinion, such are the projects prepared by Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania and submitted to the European Commission in December 2009. He expressed regret that there is no clarity about the rules of considering the projects; the financing procedures are not finalized yet. The budget of the Eastern Partnership (€600 million for 2011-2013) is insufficient to finance the projects. “The projects, they are quite ambitious, should be financed by European financial institutions, like the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, etc”, the Foreign Minister of Belarus said. Belarus suggested setting up a business dimension of the Eastern Partnership to facilitate the dialogue of the business circles of the partner states. “The Eastern Partnership is more than a political project, it is a comprehensive program meant to benefit regions and people living in these regions,” Sergei Martynov said. “Major projects can and should address issues related to energy efficiency, energy transit, protection of interests of transit states, improvement of transport infrastructure,” he added.
Sergei Martynov emphasized the importance of facilitating contacts between people, optimizing and cheapening visa issuance procedures. “We would like to see a clear, practical result of this work,” Sergei Martynov concluded.
The summit of the foreign ministers of the EU member states and the Eastern Partnership partner states will be held in the autumn of 2010.
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