Estonian Foreign Ministry supports Belarusian civil society

The Foreign Ministry of Estonia has allocated Euro 100,000 for support of the civil society in Belarus.

“It is not a big sum, however we are sure that a lot of useful things could be done if it is spent in a right way,” said Estonian Ambassador to Belarus Jaak Lensment.

“The bilateral assistance of Estonia in primarily focused on 6 countries of the EU Neighbourhood policy (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus) and on Afghanistan. The choice of the partner countries is caused, primarily, by the specific needs of these countries and additional values of democracy, in the development of which Estonia can offer some assistance,” reads the report of the Estonian Foreign Ministry.

In an interview to Radio Svaboda Jaak Lensment said: “Assistance programs have previously existed, but now their number has increased. We now have almost twice more money for such projects than ever before.”

Mr. Lensmert notes that Estonia is to offer education programs for students who cannot receive education in Belarus. “We also continue our aid to the EHU. As before, we find it very important,” the ambassador added.

Euro 100,000 is to be spent on “support of the civil society, development of democratic institutions, reinforcement of ideas of respect to human rights,” Lensmert said. “These tasks cannot exist without each other. And allocating resources for education is means, and ends are the same: to support the civil society.”

The concrete example of assistance is the work of the Eastern Partnership Centre. It started to work since January 2012. Representatives of the EU Eastern Partnership countries study there, including Belarusian civil servants.

Answering the question is it by a coincidence that the assistance program for 2012 was announced during the ongoing diplomatic conflict between the EU and official Minsk, Jaak Lensment assured: “It is a coincidence. This program was planned last year. This assistance is planned proceeding from the size of the state budget, and a lot of time is needed for its rubberstamping.”

Funds for cooperation and humanitarian aid are allocated from the budgets of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance of Estonia. In 2010 Euro 14 mln were allocated, which is 0.1% of the GDP of the country. By 2015 the size of the assistance is planned to be increased to 0.33% of the GDP.