Belarus and the European Union make significant progress in development of bilateral relations

19 февраля 2019

This was announced by Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with European Commissioner Gunther Oettinger. He is in charge of the budget and human resources with the European Commission. The Belarusian leader stated: if there are problems between Minsk and Brussels, they certainly are not of a chronic nature and must be resolved. The European Union is the second largest market for Belarusian exports. At the end of 2018 the trade turnover showed an almost 20% growth and exceeded 17 billion dollars. And we supply more to the EU than we buy. This is important, given that we purposefully diversify foreign trade.

The European Union intends to increase funding for projects in Belarus. The European Commissioner said that right now the budget is being developed practically for the next ten years. The budget plan also allocates financing for Eastern Partnership projects. Some of them will be implemented in our country. There is an agreement to create a working group with experts from Belarus and the European Commission in Brussels to discuss specific areas of cooperation and future programs.

In general, the relations between Minsk and Brussels in recent years have been developing in a positive way. This is confirmed by the frequency of visits by European politicians. Last year saw a record number of contracts with EU governments and European structures. The interest of the European Union in Belarus is growing, as well as the interest of Western companies.