By crackdown on rally March 25 Belarusians were deprived of cheap Schengen visas

European deputies do not want to sign the declaration for lowering the cost of visas for Belarusian citizens, the reason for that was a harsh response of the Belarusian authorities to the opposition rally on March 25 in Minsk.

One of initiators of signatures collection, a MEP Justas Paleckis (Lithuania) has stated that there are no chances to collect the necessary number of signatures already.

“I think that the events in Minsk connected with the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Belarus’ independence, and cerain measures of the regime have influenced some of MEPs, and they do not want to sign. We won’t be able to collect half of signatures,” MEP Justas Paleckis told in an interview to Radio Svaboda.

Only 150 signatures have been collected, while at least 393 are needed. In a week it will be possible to collect signatures in Strasbourg for 4 days. However Mr. Paleckis is pessimistic about the chances. As said by him, initiators “hoped to collect 100-150 signatures over the last week, but it won’t be enough”.

Three European deputies of the Social Democratic faction initiated collection of signatures. Mr. Paleckis believes that the mistake was not to widen the circle of initiators by members of other factions. However, as said by him, it’s a temporary failure, as at least attention for the parliament and especially of delegation on ties with Belarus had been attracted.

As said by him, Chairman of the Delegation for relations with Jacek Protasiewicz visited Vilnius, Riga and Warsaw. He held negotiations with Internal and Foreign Ministers. They discussed how visa costs for Belarusians for traveling to Schengen states and especially to neighbouring states could be reduced using the EU mechanisms.

“I am in no doubt that in the near future a new document in the for of declaration or resolution would appear in the European parliament, and this campaign will be continued. But again, agreement between all 27 states of the EU should be reached in order to support such an initiative of the European parliament,” the MEP said.

As we have informed, in the beginning of the year members of the Social Democratic faction of the EU Justas Paleckis, Genowefa Grabowskan (Poland) and Hannes Swoboda (Austria) initiated a campaign under the slogan “Say YES to Cheaper Visas for Belarusians”. The text could be sent to the EU Council and the Commission in case more than 393 members of the organization favoured the declaration.

The initiators of the campaign wanted the European Commission to start talks with the Belarusian government on lowering costs, at least to €35, like Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan citizens pay. Belarus remains the only country of the EU Eastern neighbourhood whose citizens have to pay €60 for a single-entry Schengen visa. Yet it looks like in the light of past events in Belarus members of the European parliament would not be willing to hold any negotiations with the Belarusian government, including visa talks.