Belarus, EU to hold next round of visa facilitation talks in February at earliest

Belarus and the European Union will hold the next round of talks on visa facilitation and readmission agreements in February at the earliest, Maira Mora, head of the EU Delegation to Belarus, told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.

The diplomat said that Minsk`s proposal that holders of diplomatic passports should be entitled to visa-free travel was under discussion, but the European Commission`s mandate for the talks had not been changed.

Earlier, EU officials said that the mandate did not allow for adding the proposal to the agenda of the talks.

Ms. Mora denied that the EU made changes in the European Commission`s mandate for the talks conditional on the release of Belarus` political prisoners. According to her, the matters are not connected because visa facilitation is a measure intended for the entire Belarusian people.

Ms. Mora described the talks as a normal negotiating process, in the course of which both sides outline their positions and contentious issues are brought up and solved.

Some provisions of the draft agreements will require both sides to make changes to laws, she said.

Commenting on recent remarks by Latvian officials about the possibility of a visa-free regime between Belarus and the EU, Ms. Mora said that it would be early to speculate on the matter until the visa facilitation agreement was signed.

The Council of the European Union invited Belarus to start visa facilitation talks as far back as June 2011. However, the government ignored the invitation until the Third Eastern Partnership Summit, which was held in Vilnius in November 2013. Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey announced at the summit that Belarus was ready to start talks with the EU on visa facilitation and readmission.

The first round of the talks took place in June 2014 and the second round was held in November.