Newsletter
Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

Belarus

Belarus

The Belarusian National Platform was founded in July 2010 and Belarus was the second Eastern Partnership country after Armenia to establish a National Platform.

The Belarusian National Platform is organized differently than the National Platforms of other EaP countries which is also due to the different situation within the country and the limited participation of Belarus within the Eastern Partnership. The Belarusian National Platform is therefore organised without any Working Group coordinators at the national level, but with a Coordination Council consisting of seven members to better manage the activities of the National Platform. Furthermore, the National Platform aims at organising at least three meetings of all National Platform participants each year in the form of conferences or round tables.

The National Platform faces numerous challenges in expanding its role and activities due to the limited participation of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership and unsolved political problems in the relations between the EU and Belarus as the existence of political prisoners, repressions against representatives of opposition, Civil Society and independent media, and some others. Despite these problems local civil society organisations see the Eastern Partnership and other formats of cooperation between the EU and Belarus as promising opportunities to bring reforms and positive social and political development to the country.

Activities of the Belarusian National Platform in 2015

The priorities of the Belarusian National Platform in the period of 2014-2015 included civil society involvement in the dialogue between the EU and Belarusian authorities, supporting the Independent Bologna Committee efforts to promote the Road Map of Reforms in Higher Education, enhancing the operations of the National Platform, supporting the Structural Reforms of the Forum and developing EaP CSF Strategy for 2015-17. 

The Belarusian National Platform organised numerous events and roundtables covering wide range of issues including post-election situation in Belarus, challenges facing small entrepreneurs, the potential of the EaP initiative to contribute to development of the Belarusian society as well as challenges and priorities for Belarusian civil society. Members of the Belarusian National Platform also met with representatives of EU Delegation to Belarus, the European External Action Service and EU Member States' embassies. 

Statements

  1. Statement by the Belarusian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, 22 September 2016
  2. Statement of the Belarusian National Platform on the Terrorist Attacks in Brussels, 23 March 2016
  3. Statement of the Belarusian National Platform on the EU Council conclusions on Belarus, 19 February 2016
  4. Statement of Belarusian National Platform on Sociopolitical Situation in the aftermath of the Presidential Election, 29 November 2015
  5. Statement of Belarusian National Platform on EU-Belarus Cooperation
  6. Satement of Belarusian National Platform on Reform of the Eastern Partnership, 19 May 2015

Contact

The Country Facilitator for Belarus is:

Uladzislau Vialichka, International Consortium EUROBELARUS

Email: belarus@eap-csf.eu

Website of the National Platform

http://npbelarus.info/

Project funded by the European UnionEU