Activists plan 21 pickets for visa-free travels to Poland and Lithuania

Pickets are planned to be held in near-border towns.

Activists of the campaign For Small Border Movement want to hold information pickets. They applied to the local authorities of 19 towns on the border with Poland and Lithuania asking for permission to organise pickets, charter97.org learnt from the press service of the organising committee to create the Belarusian Christian Democracy party.

According to the activists, the aim of the pickets is “to inform citizens about the situation of the implementation of the agreement on small border movement between the Republic of Belarus and Poland and to collect signatures for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus asking to facilitate the implementation of the agreement.”

Zmitser Kukhlei, one of the initiators of the campaign, says: “We'd like to inform people living in near-border towns about advantages and peculiarities of the small cross-border movement with Poland and Lithuania. In neighbouring Ukraine and Russia, residents of near-border districts have been enjoying the benefits of visa-free travels to the EU for several years. We hope the existing agreements with Poland and Lithuania will soon take effect, especially taking into account the fact that the Belarusian authorities began active talks with the EU this year on visa liberalisation.”

Pickets are scheduled for the end of August and the beginning of September. If permitted by the authorities, they will be held in 19 towns in the area of small border movement with Poland and Lithuania: Brest, Vysokaye, Zhabinka, Kamianets, Malaryta, Pruzhany, Hrodna, Svislach, Vialikaya Berastavitsa, Vaukavysk, Skidal, Masty, Astravets, Ashmiany, Voranava, Iuye, Lida, Shchuchyn and Smarhon.