Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 12 December (BelTA) – Belarus’ presidency in the Central European Initiative was a success, BelTA learned from Elisabeth Bertagnoli, a department director in the Europa Section of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of the CEI heads of government meeting in Minsk on 12 December.

Elisabeth Bertagnoli said: “It was a very successful presidency. It seems to me for Belarus it is a good opportunity to show itself as an active player to the global community, in particular, Europe. Particularly in the parliamentary dimension.”

The official pointed out that over the course of the year Belarus had arranged many important and interesting events. “I hope that cooperation with your country will continue and that Belarus will gain even more weight in the international scene,” stressed the representative of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The main theme of the CEI meeting in Minsk on 12 December is the increasing role of CEI countries in promoting compatibility and complementarity between different integration processes in Greater Europe, including by pooling efforts to counteract new threats to stability in the region and by stepping up pragmatic economic cooperation between different integration formats.

In the course of its CEI presidency Belarus arranged a number of events, including a CEI ministerial meeting, a ministerial conference on science and technology, a CEI Parliamentary Assembly session, a ministerial conference on mutual ties and compatibility in the CEI region in correlation with the new Silk Road, meetings of the national coordinators committee and the working group on the CEI management.

The Central European Initiative was founded in 1989 to promote the development of sustainable ties between countries in Central, Western and Eastern Europe in politics, economy and culture, and also to prevent the emergence of new dividing lines in Europe. Today this regional association includes 18 countries: Austria, Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia, Montenegro, and Czechia. Belarus joined the CEI in June 1996.