EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn arrives in Minsk

Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, starts his two-day visit to Belarus.

According to the EU Delegation to Belarus, Hahn visits Minsk as part of his tour to six Eastern Partnership countries ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga scheduled for May 21-22. The main objective of the visit is to evaluate the possibility of improving relations between the European Union and Belarus.

Hahn is expected to have a number of official meetings, as well as meetings with opposition politicians. A considerable part of the programme is devoted to meetings with civil society representatives, human rights defenders and relatives of political prisoners, according to the EU Delegation to Belarus.

There's no information what officials will meet with the EU Commissioner.

A meeting with opposition representatives is scheduled for April 16, BelaPAN reports.

Ahead of the visit to Minsk, Johannes Hahn met in Brussels with Ales Bialiatski, Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights and head of Viasna human rights centre, which was closed by the authorities.

According to Bialiatski, the main topic of the meeting of April 15 was the problem of political prisoners. The Commissioner assured Bialiatski that the problem of political prisoners remained among the priority issues for the EU.

The previous visit of EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiation to Belarus was in 2010. Štefan Füle, the then Commissioner, visited Minsk in July and November.