News

Minsk, 19 March. The Belarusian foreign ministry hopes that the report to be drawn up following the Minsk visit of a delegation of the European Parliament will help Belarus and the European Union step up their dialogue, the ministry's spokesman, Andrey Savinykh, told BelaPAN. Led by Justas Paleckis, the European Parliament's rapporteur on Belarus, the delegation arrived in Minsk on March 18. On Monday, Mr. Paleckis had a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Alena Kupchyna. "This was a working meeting," Mr. Savinykh commented. "Justas Paleckis came to Belarus to gather information and draw up a report on the state of relations between Belarus and the EU. We're interested to develop the relations based on the principles of equality and transparency. We hope that the report by Mr. Paleckis will help step up our dialogue or at least improve mutual understanding." During the four-day visit, Mr. Paleckis is scheduled to have meetings with both government officials and representatives of political parties and non-governmental organizations.

© BelaPAN, Tanya Korovenkova, 19 03 2013