Martin Uggla - program officer of Swedish NGO Centre for Development Cooperation "Forum Syd" answers some questions of our website coordinators about NGO sector in Belarus.

Henryk Litwin, the Polish ambassador to Belarus, has expressed hope that Minsk and Warsaw will step up bilateral dialogue.

“We are realists, so we don’t expect Belarusian authorities to fulfill all the 12 EU conditions at once”, – the High Representative on External Policy and Security of the European union Xavier Solana said in his interview with BelaPAN. 

At the end of Minsk forum eurobelarus.info inquired, what kind of impression did the event make on the seasoned participants and those who take part in it first time.

EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana welcomes the organizing of the European March in Minsk and declares that the intention of the opposition to build a genuine dialogue with the authorities is an important and constructive step. The EU High Representative considers unacceptable the people to be imprisoned for displaying EU symbols or for expressing their political views. “Concrete co-operation needs to be based on shared values”, - Javier Solana declared in the exclusive interview to Charter’97 press centre. 

A group of representatives of Polack State University has gone to Gotland, Sweden. The Belarusian scientists will study common history of the Scandinavian country and Polack, and they will participate in some archeological studies. This trip has become a part of a program of cooperation between Polack and the island of Gotland in Sweden. This cooperation becomes even stronger within the framework of a joint project Panorama Dvina Daugava. The project is run together by Belarus, Sweden and Latvia. Its goal is to develop tourism within old “way from the Vikings to Greeks”. Last week Mr. Arne Ellefors, Panorama Dvina Daugava project manager, visited Polack and answered the questions of our correspondent Andrei Aliaksandrau. 

“Only a few foreigners know, how easy it is to work at a person-to-person level in Belarus”...
Lene Petersen, the leader of experts’ team of the project that is being implemented now under the aegis of European Commission and one of coordinators of eurobelarus.info internet-project is from Denmark. Since 1996 she actively works with civil society organizations of Belarus. In her opinion, during these 11 years Belarusians have changed as much as their reality. Our discussion was about her impressions of Belarus and Belarusians, the situation with NGO sector and perspectives of its development.