Despite all sorts of forecasts on the subject of political standstill in the country, this autumn bears a whole number of important events.

One of them is the Eastern Partnership Summit is to take place in Vilnius in November. “It will be a certain catalyzer of all the previous meetings and events,” noted in the interview with the EuroBelarus Information Service Ulad Vialichka, the member of the Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the EaP CSF.

Apart from that on November 4 in Minskthe Conference of the National Platform of the EaP CSF will be held. And according to Ulad Vialichka, the participants of the forthcoming conference are going to bring out their stand with an allowance for the forthcoming Summit in Vilnius. “One of the reasons why we are meeting at the conference of the National Platform is to prepare our message for the participants of the Summit in Vilnius; to put forth the stand of the Belarusan civil society and be heard. This is our main goal. Besides, we have a number of questions about the development of the Civil Society Forum as a part of Eastern Partnership program.”

Let us recall that about a year ago the Concept of the development of the National Platform EaP CSF was adopted. At that time some thought the Concept can promote more dynamic development of consolidation within the civil society. It is hard to give evaluations of the last year and whether the expectations were fulfilled; however, according to Ulad Vialichka, “the work became more productive, and Belarusan organizations hold quite constructive talks on most topical issues, which are to be put forth as a common opinion shared by all organizations of civil society in Belarus. In this regard now I can say there is visible agreement in comparison with what he situation used to be before. And even if the progress is not that big, it permits to do further work.”

Ulad Vialichka believes that it is important to understand the context in which current events in the Belarusan civil society have been taking place: “Our task is to control the observance of the main criteria and conditions of Belarus-Europe relations. First of all, it is the problem of political prisoners, as well as the participation of Belarusan civil society in Belarus-Europe initiatives and programs as one of the parties in interest.”

Let us recall that the forthcoming Conference of the National Platform will be dedicated to the development of Civil Society Forum as one of the interested parties and main elements within the Eastern Partnership, to the future of the Program after the Summit, as well as to the discussion of the plans of the National Platform for the next months.