Jean-Eric Holzapfel: Belarus cannot stay frozen, changes are needed

The European Commission’s Charge d'Affaires in Minsk called on the Belarusian government to hold free elections.

The objective of the activity of the EC’s delegation is to see Belarus a full member of the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership programme, delegation head Jean-Eric Holzapfel told in an interview to Belarusian First TV Channel, BelaPAN reports.

According to him, future relations between Belarus and the EU depended much on the current discussion and steps taken by Belarus. “We have a kind of a window of opportunities since October 2008,” he added. The diplomat said the parties needed to give an impetus to their relations. He expressed a hope that the progress in this area would allow Belarus to become a full-fledged participant of the Eastern Partnership project.

As emphasized by Holzapfel, the best guarantee for stability was democracy. Stability and changes should be dynamic, and stability is of little value in this respect, he thinks. The country cannot stay frozen, changes are needed.

He noted he wasn’t able to interfere with domestic policy as a diplomat, but the only thing to do is turning to common values. He said the parties have common values, for example within the framework of the OSCE and Eastern Partnership programme. This means that the parties share the values of human rights, democracy and rule of law, Holzapfel thinks. These values, the importance of free elections, independent media and civil liberties are also discussed by the EU and Belarus. The diplomat noted negotiations with Belarus are carried out in this context.