Linas Linkevičius: Belarusians Themselves Are The Ones To Decide The Fate Of Their Future Relations With EU

Lithuania can block the Memorandum of the Eastern Partnership because of the BelNPP.

On November 24, in the first half of the day the fifth summit of the European Union program Eastern Partnership will be held in Brussels. It is aimed at developing the EU's integration ties with six countries of the former USSR: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Belarus has come close to signing of the treaty on easing visa procedures, which has been under discussion since the summit - 2013, but the treaty is not expected to be signed at this summit.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Belarus, which defines further areas of cooperation, was prepared for signing at the Brussels summit. But its early signing could be blocked by Lithuania, as it stands against the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravets, directly next to the Lithuanian border, Radio Svaboda reports.

When giving an interview, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius was against calling the position of Lithuania a blockade:

"We are not talking about a direct blockade, but still we will ensure the comments on the nuclear power plant construction in this document to be minimum ambiguous, but accurate. We do not deliver any ultimatums, we just explain to our colleagues and do it with success, because the arguments back us up. This is very important, because if, on the one hand, we are helping Belarus in easing visa procedures, in openness, on the other – we will not make any concessions in this regard. After all, here the situation is developing in a negative direction – one can talk and make statements, but nobody pays attention."

Regarding the prospects for cooperation between the EU and Belarus, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius said on November 23:

– We always say that we would like to see an open society in Belarus. We are discussing, the negotiations on easing visa procedures have almost finished, the agreement is almost ready, the readmission agreement have already been almost completed, too. In the end, it will mean cheaper visas for Belarusians. Until now, Russians have been paying 35 euros for Schengen visas, and Belarusians – 60, which is unfair. I want to note that we really support the projects on cooperation with Belarus.

But on the other hand, I must add expressing our Lithuanian national point of view that we will never agree, we will never reconcile with the construction of this nuclear power plant in Belarus, and I believe that this is a common European approach, as far as I know the European Commission’s attitude.

This construction started in 2009, a lot of time has passed. However, it is being done in violation of all the standards, norms and principles, and it remains a problem not only of our bilateral relations, it is really a precedent. And there is another thing, which shows that not everything is tolerable and peaceful in our relations.

We really do not like that our eastern partners conduct military exercises next to our borders. The recent West-2017 exercises were unique in terms of integrating Belarus into the Russian scenario and implementing the exercises. And we do not consider these actions to be particularly friendly. These aspects show that not everything is positive in our relations. But Belarusians themselves are the ones to decide on how these relations will change in the future.