Sergei Martynov: Today we have negotiated at the Foreign Ministry and dwelled on the whole range of issues of our relationship with the EU. We act from the premise that Belarus and the EU are both critical trade and economic partners.

You may know that the EU is one of our two most important trade and economic partners. On top of that, we stressed that during many years Belarus and the EU cooperate in a wide range of areas like energy, environment, illegal migration and commodity movement counteraction, border security and in many other areas.

We also noted that both sides have mutual interests, with the Eastern Partnership largely viewed as a likely springboard towards realization of those interests. We also talked about the opportunities which could be seized to help improve our relations for the future and meet the expectations that both sides have.

Today, the European Commissioner had meetings with the President of the Republic of Belarus and with the Vice Prime Minister, Mr.Kobyakov.

Reuters: You said that there is a plan of joint actions of Belarus and the EU being elaborated. Have you discussed the plan today and are there paragraphs that the Belarusian leadership has already agreed with?

Sergei Martynov: The plan was not discussed as a text or draft text. It is still in the European Commission which is still working on it. Today, we discussed common approach to the possibility of working on such critical document.

RIA News: The Euronest, parliamentary dimension of the Eastern Partnership, has not met so far due to unclear situation with the Belarusian delegation. What is your version of that matter, when is the first meeting about to take place and who will represent Belarus?

Sergei Martynov: The parliamentary co-operation is indeed very important within the Eastern Partnership but responding to your question I would say that there is precisely clear situation with the Belarusian delegation’s line-up. It can be formed only by members of parliament. This is our principled position. There should be no discrimination while building up the Euronest. We hope that common sense will prevail over that process.

The Belarusian Market: Have you discussed the likelihood of sealing an agreement of any kind between the EU and Belarus? The only country neighbouring the EU without an agreement is Belarus. And what is Belarus ready to do to help settle the visa problem for its nationals?

Sergei Martynov: We have not discussed an ‘any kind’ agreement between the EU and Belarus. Neither EU or Belarus need the ‘any kind’. We need a serious substantial agreement.

The question about what this agreement could be is being preliminary negotiated with our colleagues in the EU for quite a long time. For both us and them, it is obvious that we need to pass a certain road before we come up with such agreement. Albeit the situation as it is – lack of any legal framework apart from the agreement between the Commission of the European Communities and the Soviet Union (with both passed away) – is quite absurd. Therefore this aim is actual and it is not moving away from the limelight.

With respect to the visa issue, I think that slowly, more slowly than we wanted, we are moving towards sorting out this issue. We believe that this issue is largely essential as this is the area where our nationals would or could feel the real benefits of our relations.

We believe that the situation today when the Belarusians are put to discrimination compared with our neighbours is unacceptable.