The EuroNest PA holds the working group sitting on Belarus presided by the Head of Belarus Affairs in EuroNest, member of Georgian Parliamentary Delegation, Guguli Magradze.

The attendees discussed the report on Belarus problems emphasizing unsolved challenges in the country – the only country in Europe maintaining death penalty. The report also provides the information about challenges on democratic development, attitude towards opposition and restriction of free media. The attendees emphasized Belarus-Russia relations which are quite acute to mitigate independent of Belarus by Russia.

“Despite the non-democratic governance in the country, EuroNest PA applies all resources to open the door wide to Belarus for participation in European structures to facilitate reduction of Russian pressure. The progress is achieved in education, youth engagement. European institutions will intensify the monitoring for the upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections to ensure democracy of the process”, - G. Magradze noted.

The sitting was attended by the opposition parties of Belarus, NGOs, media and international experts. The MEPs, as well as Georgian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Moldovan MPs asked about possible forms and methods of Russian aggression against Belarus.

The attendees expressed concern that Russia may apply similar scenario as in Crimea to undertake armed aggression.

According to representatives of Belarus, armed aggression by Russia in Belarus is excluded, though Russia applies pressure on the country by means of the economic leverage, Russian news agencies and the Orthodox Church.