The European Union (EU) will demand that the Belarusian authorities abolish the Criminal Code’s article that envisages punishment for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization, German leader Angela Merkel said at a meeting of the Board and the Executive Committee of the European Senior Citizens’ Union (ESCU) in Berlin on November 6.

Belarusian opposition leaders have handed over to members of the European Parliament their "roadmap" specifying steps that Minsk should make in response to the suspension of the European Union's travel sanctions against top Belarusian officials.

The Czech Republic, which will hold the European Union’s rotating presidency in the first half of 2009, is reportedly considering inviting Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka to an EU summit in a "27 + 6 format" of the EU plus Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus, BelaPAN said.

On 25-26 October the World Championship on Sport Dancing in Wheelchairs took place in Minsk. Representatives of 17  countries from four continents took part in the event. Photo report by Julia Darashkevich. 

Tomas Pojar, the Czech Republic’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, arrived in Belarus on October 24 to discuss, among other things, ways of developing dialogue between Belarus and the European Union and the possibility of closer Belarusian-Czech relations, the Belarusian foreign ministry told BelaPAN.

Belarusian opposition leaders met with Tomas Pojar, the Czech Republic’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, in Minsk on October 24.
 

Belarusbank and Deutsche Börse AG, the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, have signed a memorandum of understanding.

The European Union will announce its readiness to enter into talks with Minsk on easier Schengen visa formalities and lower visa fees for Belarusian citizens in the near future, a representative of the German foreign ministry told a group of Belarusian reporters in Berlin on October 16.

The European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents has called on the authorities of Belarus to lift their entry ban on EU politicians.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has called for a new agreement on European security, which he said "is urgently needed following the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict," BelaPAN said.