Swedish Ambassador: “We have progress with Belarus, but not as fast as we would like”

• 3.06.2010, 17:03

Stefan Eriksson thinks it is necessary to base on “real expectations when measuring effectiveness of EU’s initiative Eastern Partnership”.

“We should be patient. I think we’ll see results,” Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Belarus said at a press conference in Minsk, Interfax reports.

He supposed that “some people in Belarus and in Europe think that a year (since the EP programme was launched) has passed, but nothing has changed.”

“It was a good year. Better that it could have been,” the diplomat is sure. “WE should always have realistic expectations,” Eriksson underlined. “The initiatives have long-term expectations, we shouldn’t have expected radical changes in a year,” he said.

Eriksson noted that the bilateral ties within the framework of the Eastern Partnership programme are actively developing. The ambassador stressed that the work “depends on a situation in every country; contacts with Ukraine demonstrate especially fast development: concrete issues on free trade, EU, and energy are discussed.”

“We have progress with Belarus, but not as fast as we would like,” Eriksson said.

Speaking about multilateral format, the diplomat noted it takes time to create necessary institutions. According to him, concrete things are being done: seminars on topical issues, establishing working contacts with border services and other agencies.