Opinions & Interviews

“On 1 July Slovakia assumed the Presidency in the Council of the European Union. We hope that we will be able to give traction to some issues concerning the relations between Brussels and Belarus, including the issues related to the treaty between your country and the EU. The existing document is outdated. It does not meet modern conditions. To sign a new document, we need to have some work done both on your side and also on our side. It will not be easy. I think that we will not be able to finish the work during the Presidency of Slovakia, but we will start the process, which will be further developed,” the Ambassador said.

Jozef Migas emphasized that the parties should also think over the visa facilitation. “Of course, some Schengen rules will be made stricter. This is due to the flow of migrants,” the diplomat said. “We are arriving at the conclusion that every state should have its border security, protection, rules that ensure safety within each country. But this does not mean that we do not want liberalization of the visa regime. We do. But we need to agree on what steps we will take and what rules will be changed,” the Ambassador noted.

The Belarusian-Slovak business forum, Innovations – The Path Towards Successful Integration, is one of the events of the Days of Slovakia which will be held in Vitebsk as part of the international arts festival Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk. The business forum is scheduled for 12-14 July. It will provide a platform for meetings between Belarusian entrepreneurs and government authorities with foreign partners, associations providing support to small and medium-sized businesses, and specialist financial institutions. The program of the business forum includes a plenary meeting, seminars, roundtables, business matchmaking sessions, and other events. The participants will discuss the prospects of bilateral cooperation in power engineering, machine-building, woodworking, pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, light industry, tourism and health improvement.

The cultural program of the Days of Slovakia is also eventful. Several Slovak performers will take part in the concerts of the international festival Slavonic Bazaar. An exhibition by Zuzana Rudavska, Touch of Slovakia, will open at the Vitebsk Art Museum. The movie theater Mir will host an evening of Slovak cinema, and a photo exhibition will be held as part of the Days of Slovakia in Belarus. Apart from that, there will be a Slovak pavilion that will invite guests of the international art festival to taste dishes of the national cuisine and learn about Slovak crafts and entertainments.

The Days of Slovakia have been organized by the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in the Republic of Belarus, and Vitebsk Regional Marketing Center.