Andrei Lyankevich has become one of the five winners. On the whole, representatives of 56 OSCE member states have taken part in the contest.

Approaches of Washington and Brussels towards the dictatorial regime in Belarus must be coordinated, believes.

Extension of the US sanctions against officials of Belarus has been commented to Radio Svaboda by David Kramer, a former Assistant Secretary of State or Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor during the George W. Bush administration which imposed these sanctions.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Belarus Stefan Eriksson is confident about the success of Eastern Partnership initiative. Mr Ambassador made this statement at a press conference dedicated to the national day of Sweden.

“From the very start it was clear that the initiative is a long-term project and that no big changes would happen in a year,” Stefan Eriksson said. The Eastern Partnership is about the development of bilateral ties with the European Union as well as multilateral contacts. According to the Ambassador, it is bilateral cooperation that has been on the rise recently, “the cooperation with Ukraine has been quite vibrant”. “As for Belarus, we are moving forward, yet not so fast,” Stefan Eriksson said.

The European Union is concerned about the lack of progress toward democracy in Belarus recently, outgoing British Ambassador Nigel Gould-Davies said at a farewell news conference in Minsk on September 1, BelaPAN said.

Despite of that, the EU is set to insist on fulfilling conditions of democratization by Belarus. It has been stated by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, on Monday to journalists after the first day of the ministerial meeting of the EU.

Presentation of Benita Ferrero-Waldner European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy and Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership at an International conference “Eastern Partnership: towards Civil Society Forum”, held in Prague on 6 May 2009.

The chairman of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, has given an exclusive interview to the Robert Schuman Foundation with regard to the economic and financial crisis and the means to overcome it.