Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-15-Speech-3-136"
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"en.20060215.12.3-136"2
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".
Mr President, I thank honourable Members of Parliament for all their comments, which, in general, reinforce the commitment of this House to seek democracy and respect for human rights in Belarus.
All television and radio programmes will be in both Russian and Belarusian. Television programmes aired in Russian will systematically be subtitled in Belarusian.
As I stated in my opening remarks, the Commission, for its part, has played an active role in Belarus through its support for NGOs and media organisations and action to help raise awareness among the Belarusian population in the hope that this may bring about democratic change. The European Union has stressed the importance it attaches to a democratic election process, and we are ready to offer closer relations if and when we see convincing progress towards genuine democracy and respect for human rights.
In response to what Mr Wiersma and other Members said concerning the presidential election scheduled for 19 March, the Commission regrets that the European Parliament has not been invited to observe the elections. This is indeed disappointing, but not a surprising decision, given the situation in the country. We will be following closely what the OSCE/ODIHR mission will be reporting on the elections. MEPs could possibly form part of the national allocations from Member States to the OSCE/ODIHR mission.
Regarding the point raised by Ms Schroedter and other MEPs, I should like to repeat that the Commission is seeking to address the situation in a novel way through support for the European Humanitarian University in exile and for independent media.
Regarding what Ms Záborská said, I would again emphasise that a good part of the Commission strategy is to support independent media in both the Russian and Belarusian languages
in particular – to ensure that they can truly act as a catalyst for change.
Concerning the emphasis placed by Mr Muscat on youth, I thank him for his comments and assure him that the Commission is indeed focusing its efforts on civil society, including the youth of Belarus, who are the hope for a better future.
On the point raise by Ms Vaidere, I should like to state that discussions are under way at Council working group-level with a view to finding some practical solutions to the common approach on visa facilitation.
With regard to Mr Pavilionis’s point, I cannot agree more that we need to support any action in favour of the youth of Belarus and, in particular, in favour of the European Humanitarian University in exile.
The EUR 2 million media project involves not only partners from Germany and Russia, but also a Polish radio station, a Lithuanian radio station, German and Dutch NGOs and Belarusian journalists. It is therefore a Europe-wide project. The Russian television partner, RTVI, has demonstrated its fully independent stance from the Russian Government. As a matter of fact, RTVI is made up of journalists who have escaped government-controlled media outlets."@en1
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