On 24 May, Warsaw hosted a conference on “Investing in democratic Belarus’ long-term future: identifying best practices to support the education, culture and civil society sectors”, co-organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The event was a platform for trilateral dialogue and an exchange of views among representatives of Belarusian civil society, members of Belarusian democratic opposition as well as donors and representatives from Poland and other EU Member States. The conference was also aimed at drawing attention to the difficult situation of Belarusian civil society and its fight to preserve national identity as the information space is being flooded with Russia’s narrative. Another goal was to underline that Belarus is still part of the Eastern Partnership policy, even if the regime decided to withdraw from it. Three roundtables were organised during the conference to discuss support for civil society, education and culture respectively.

Since 2020, the Belarusian society has faced increasing repression from the Minsk authorities and its freedom of speech and assembly has been reduced. Alexander Lukashenko’s regime is currently detaining more than 1,500 political prisoners and many Belarusian citizens have been forced out of the country. In these circumstances, it is extremely important to support the development of Belarusian education, culture and structures of civil society which, in fact, emerged in the political underground, with hampered access to the Belarusian community abroad. In this context, the Eastern Partnership, initiated in 2009 by Poland and Sweden, remains topical thanks to setting the EU’s Eastern neighbouring countries on the path towards European integration and democratisation.

 

MFA Press Office