Andrei Yahorau: In the shadows of successes (December, 2010).                                                                                            

The second Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership in Berlin was marked again by successes of the Belarusan delegation which, just like at the first Forum, looked a more prepared, substantially provided, and harmonious team. It introduced and promoted the ideas of “road maps” and a deeper substantial study of the recommendations of the Forum, and they actually dominated both in the groups’ work and at the only full-fledged plenary session. The idea to form National Platforms, which was perceived suspiciously by the first meeting in Brussels, was now almost unequivocally supported and approved by colleagues from civil society and high representatives of the European Commission. The delegates from civil society of Belarus were elected speakers of the whole Forum for the second time, which symbolically fixes quite deserved leadership. However, these positive moments should not cover all those serious blunders and defects that have not allowed the second Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership to implement its possibilities to the full. It is especially dangerous that all those errors have a non-random and consequently as though pardonable character. The majority of failures reveal chronic, structural illnesses of civil society of Belarus and the countries of the Eastern Partnership.

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