New EU president in Belarus will be represented by France

Slovenia took over the EU presidency for the next six months since 1 January. France will perform the offices of the EU president on behalf of Slovenia in Belarus.

From 1 July to 31 December 2007 Portugal was the EU President. As there is no Embassy of Portugal in Belarus, it was represented by the Embassy of Slovakia.

Charge d’Affaires of the Slovak Republic to Belarus Lubomir Rehak said several times that the EU was interested in and stood ready for development of full relation with Belarus, BelaPAN reports.

In particular, visiting Gomel region as a member of the EU Ambassadors delegation on 11-12October, L. Rehak declared the EU was interested in Belarus to become a member of common European environment. He emphasised that yet in 2006 the European Commission spread the information about the opportunities that the cooperation of Belarus and the EU could bring, and the actions that are expected from the Belarusian authorities.

“I would not call it demands; these are recommendations,” L. Rehak said. “These are the issues we consider to form the civilization basis of the European community. These issues should not contradict Belarusian nation’s concerns. Here we speak about release of political prisoners, creation of the economic environment which will be similar to that of the EU, so that there will be no islands in the ocean of free market,” the diplomat emphasised.