Opinions & Interviews

SOCHI, 11 October (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko criticized the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly for low efficiency at the session of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Sochi on 11 October, BelTA has learned.

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had already had an opportunity share opinions about the operation of certain CIS bodies, in particular, the Interparliamentary Assembly, with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. They believe that this agency is not efficient enough despite it receives sufficient financing.

“Maybe we should give up on this structure if it does not work. Although we suggested giving concrete powers to it. We pass certain model laws, but none of them, for example, in Belarus formed the basis of the national legislation. It never happened, in fact,” the Belarusian leader said.

“It turns out that MPs gather together in St. Petersburg to discuss something. But we even do not know anything about it because it is not in demand,” Alexander Lukashenko remarked. “There are a lot of civil servants, but their work is inefficient.”

The president emphasized that these issues should be thoroughly analyzed. Even not the most topical and urgent issues are discussed at the level of the heads of state. “Sincerely speaking, even at the top-level summits we make decisions and not always implement them,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

In his opinion, trade and economic interaction and security issues are more important, and the Belarusian side has raised them several times. “Security matters are of paramount importance. But we still neglect them either because we are afraid to raise them or realize that we will not be able to solve them,” the Belarusian leader said.

“We pretend that everything is good. We gather together, make statements, but the efficiency of this work is very low. Maybe we should appoint certain specialists who would propose a serious reform or reorganization of our activities, shouldn’t we?” the president asked.

Similar problems exist in the EAEU as well, he said. But there is a more concrete agenda and more concrete decisions because the union is very important. “I would agree that we should have a parliamentary dimension in the EAEU because we need to discuss a lot of things there. We should energize our post-Soviet structures,” Alexander Lukashenko said. He expressed confidence that other heads of state will support him.