We would like to introduce you here the materials of actual research "Freedom of association and the legal status of NGOs in Belarus, 2007", that was kindly offered for publication at our website by the authors - experts of Assembly of Pro-democratic NGOs in Belarus within the frames of cooperative research with  Foundation For Legal Technologies Development. The text of research is available in Belarusian, Russian and English versions.

Support to Civil Society in Belarus: a view from within. Final report of a survey of Belarusian NGOs "An Assessment of Foreign Donors' Policies by Belarusian NGOs"

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Eastern Europe Studies Centre (www.eesc.lt) has successfully prepared a comparative socioeconomical study about Life in Lithuania and Belarus. The main objective of the research was to show the pros and cons of living in Lithuania (an EU and NATO member) and in Belarus (CIS member). The EESC experts gathered information about prices of wide variety of goods and services in both countries and compared them in the context of local earnings. The caricatures and visual representation of the statistical data makes this analytical study highly attractive. The study was pulished in three languages: Lithuanian, English and Russian.

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The continuation of the research on the materials of the interview, conducted within the framework of the “Support to the development of the potential and network cooperation of Belarusian NGOs and the local authorities” project in April – September 2007. The interviewed were representing major NGOs of the European countries, which took part in EU and EU member countries’ projects. 

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service www.forum18.org, and Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service www.forum18.org
The Catholic Church is unsure about the implications of remarks by Belarusian Vice-premier Aleksandr Kosinets about foreign clergy. With about 190 foreign priests plus more than 100 nuns, the Catholic Church is by far the religious community in Belarus which relies most heavily on foreign clergy. Kosinets told a 19 September round table with Belarus' religious leaders that the Catholic Church should end the use of foreign clergy over the next few years. However, Forum 18 News Service has been unable to clarify whether this is a recommendation or an order. "The Vice-premier's words arouse questions and perplexities rather than outright concern," a senior Catholic told Forum 18. Religious affairs official Aleksandr Kalinov, who was also present at the round table, refused to tell Forum 18 if action will be taken if the Catholic Church does not end the use of foreign priests, but insisted: "No-one is preparing to expel them." The Catholic Church – like the Orthodox Church – also has a number of foreign-born bishops, while other religious communities – including Jews – have foreign religious leaders.

Warsaw - According to the information presented by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Foodstuffs of Belarus for the Interfax Agency, the country plans to harvest more than 2 million MT of vegetables in the present season. “We forecast the vegetable crop to reach 2,08 million MT, which will draw level with the 2006 crop”, announced Belarusian experts. 

The majority of Ukrainian citizens who took part in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections in Belarus, cast their votes in favour of the Party of Regions. 

A new Europe-wide survey has revealed that two-thirds of Europeans feel that they share elements of a collective culture. Nearly nine out of ten Europeans say that culture, cultural exchanges and intercultural dialogue should have an important place in the EU. These findings emerged from the recent Eurobarometer survey of people's views on culture, which was carried out during the spring. The survey covered 26,000 persons from all over Europe and from all walks of life. 

… When we were making up the inquiry for the interview on problems and perspectives of Belarus-European cooperation, we had mush to scratch head over formulation of questions to people who are likely to be negative about such cooperation. However our cautiousness turned out to be excessive as we found no such attitude in our respondents. All representatives of NGOs, public movements and governmental bodies polled under the inquiry, are positive about the cooperation between Belarus and Europe, yet with different enthusiasm and on different bases (from value to pragmatic ones) but positive in general. Yet this is the only question requiring such rare unanimity. 

The research done for the Eurocommission by the “Eurobarometer” service has proved that the majority of people of the friend-states of the EU support the efforts of strengthening the cooperation with the neighbor-states of the EU. Most of the respondents consider the working together in the spheres of fighting organized crime and terrorism, nature protection, energy, economic development, migration, democracy and higher education as a very important. The larger part of the European population think that assisting the neighbouring countries would promote spreading of democracy and peace outside the EU borders, and about half of the people suppose that the neighbouring countries want to cooperate with the EU for the purpose of inner reforms.