Belarusian Foreign Minister Martynau not allowed entering European Union

On Wednesday Maxime Verhagen, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, demanded to deprive the head of Belarusian Foreign Ministry Syarhei Martynau a Schengen visa, and France states that the official hadn’t been invited to Brussels.

In case of approval of this initiative by the parliament of the country, Martynau would ne unable to travel to Brussels where the headquarters of the EU is situated, as the government of the Netherlands would defend its position in presence of other EU members.

As said by Mr. Verhagen, to lift all international sanctions against Belarus is too early, as this country “does not respect human rights still”. However, Mr. Verhagen has underlined that recognition of the recent positive changes in Belarus, for instance, release of political prisoners, is an important and necessary measure, German agency DPA informs.

Moreover, it has been reported today that the head of Belarusian Foreign Ministry Syarhei Martynau hadn’t been invited to the meeting with “Troika” representatives in Brussels on September 15 in the framework of another session of the Foreign Ministers session of 27 countries of the EU.

In the conversation with the BelaPAN a representative of the Foreign Ministry of France, which is presiding in the EU at the moment, refuted reports disseminated by RIA Novosti that S. Martynau was holding talks with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Bernard Kouchner, the French minister of Foreign and European Affairs and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The interlocutor hasn’t excluded that at the meeting on September 15 Foreign Ministers of the EU countries could adopt a decision to invite their Belarusian counterpart to their next session on October 13. According to knowledge of the French diplomat, it was decided to plan talks with the Belarusian Minister before the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus on September 28.