EU willing to assist Belarus in carrying out economic reforms – European Commissioner
European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn has met with Belarusian Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakou in Luxembourg.
According to Johannes Hahn, the European Union is willing to assist Belarus in carrying out the economic reforms and creating new jobs, state-run news agency BelTA reports.
The EU official also raised the issue of the possible start of working on the key components of a comprehensive agreement on cooperation between Belarus and the bloc.
The parties also discussed the interaction of Belarus with the International Monetary Fund as well as the preparation for the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit scheduled for November 24.
As reported earlier, the EU expressed readiness to welcome Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the event.
The Eastern Partnership is an EU initiative with a stated goal of strengthening relations with its neighbours in Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The recent EaP summit of EU and ex-Soviet countries took place in the Latvian capital on May 21-22, 2015.
Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey represented Belarus in Riga. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka never attended the previous summits in Prague, Warsaw and Vilnius. At that time, the Belarusian leader and his sons were on the EU black listfor serious violations of human rights, for the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition or for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Belarus. In February 2016, the sanctions were lifted.
