Commission Starts Negotiations of Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements with Belarus

Commission DG for Home Affairs, Stefano Manservisi and Belarus Deputy Foreign Minister Alena Kupchyna met in Brussels to launch the negotiations on Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements between the EU and Belarus. Since 2011 the Commission has been regularly reminding of its readiness to launch the negotiations.

The negotiations will focus on agreements to facilitate the procedures for issuing short-stay visas as well as the readmission of irregular migrants between the European Union and Belarus.

Once negotiated in parallel, the agreements on visa facilitation and readmission can only enter into force simultaneously.

Source: http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/belarus/press_corner/all_news/news/2014/04022014_01_en.htm

News of Belarus

Human rights defender Tatsiana Reviaka questioned by KGB

Mrs. Tatsiana Reviaka, member of the Human Rights Center Viasna’s Council, has been summoned for “conversation” to the KGB central office, after she received an official writ, saying that she should be questioned “as a person being aware of circumstances that have significance for maintaining the national security of the Republic of Belarus.”

Tatsiana Reviaka visited the KGB office, accompanied by her lawyer.

Ales Bialiatski: “I am a persistent violator!”

Back in the middle of June the imprisoned head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski wrote in his letter to Valiantsin Stefanovich: “It seems to me that the reprimands I have received are not the last ones”. The new information from Babruisk, where Ales is currently kept, confirms these words. Thus, in his letter to Valiantsin Stefanovich of 5 August he writes about more reprimands, issued to him by the administration of penal colony #2.

Ukrainian civic activists express their disquiet about the visit of President of Belarus to Kyiv

Open appeal to the heads of states, diplomats and representatives of the international organizations:

Ukrainian human rights defenders, civic activists and concerned citizens express their disquiet about the planned visit of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to Kyiv on July 1st 2012.