Belarus has been invited to the first pan-European youth conference that will be held in Belgium in the latter half of this year, Jan Vanhee, chairman of the Council of Europe’s European Steering Committee for Youth, told reporters in Minsk on Friday.
Mr. Vanhee said that the Belgian youth policy minister would send the official invitation to Belarus and a list of prospective participants that would feature not only government officials but also representatives of registered and unregistered non-governmental organizations.
Mr. Vanhee is a member of a delegation of the Council of Europe that arrived in Minsk on January 21 to negotiate for cooperation with Belarus in the youth sphere.
When meeting with the Belarusian education minister in Minsk on Friday, Ralf Rene Weingartner, head of the Council’s Youth and Sport Directorate who leads the delegation, said that Belarus has an opportunity to attend the Council of Europe meeting of youth policy ministers to be held in Russia in 2012.
Minister Alyaksandr Radzkow replied that Belarus was interested in exchanging experience with European countries and participating in European education and youth programs.
