Milinkevich and European Parliament’s President discussed prospects of dialog between Belarusian authorities and EU

• 2.10.2008, 17:26

Alyaksandr Milinkevich, leader of the “For Freedom” movement, met with European Parliament’s President Hans-Gert Pöttering during his visit to Warsaw.

The politicians discussed the political and economic situation in Belarus, the results of the elections for the “house of representatives”, and prospects for development of a dialog between the European Union and our country, Milinkevich’s press service reports.

As it has already been reported, during a meeting of Belarusian opposition leaders with representatives of the European People’s Party in Vilnius in September, Alyaksandr Milinkevich urged the West to change the strategy, to work out a more pragmatic approach to the situation in Belarus, and start an active dialog even with the current regime: “It is very important for us to build a dialog between the EU and the regime at this stage. I don’t believe a dictator can turn into a democrat one day. He won’t be a democrat, but he is interested that Russia not to annex Belarus, because he will mean nothing in this case.”

Milinkevich called on the European Union to simplify the requirements to the Belarusian regime: “I stand for 12 conditions of the European Commission to be reduced to, maybe, three ones. Of course, if the authorities make a certain step, the European Union should make its steps, too.”