MINSK, 8 October (BelTA) – Two projects funded by the European Union (80%) and the Council of Europe (20%) with the total budget of €870,000 are being implemented in Belarus in 2019-2021, BelTA learned from Arkady Sytin, coordinator of the CE/EU program Partnership for Good Governance (PGG), on 8 October.
The first project takes care of fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. The second one focuses on court reforms. Central government agencies and ministries are key partners on the Belarusian side. As for the first project, those are certainly the Justice Ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office, and other ones. As for the court reform, the partners are the Justice Ministry, the Supreme Court, and representatives of the community of judges, who are going to directly implement it in the capital city and the regions.
The PGG program is being implemented in Eastern Partnership Initiative countries. In addition to these country projects Belarus is taking part in four regional projects focusing on fight against economic crimes, efforts to bolster the status of lawyers, fight against discrimination, and efforts to facilitate access of women to justice. The total budget of these projects exceeds €3 million.
Andrei Bushilo, Head of the Central Office for Europe and North America at the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that interaction with the Council of Europe is of great importance for the country. “We welcome progress in our relations with this respected international organization that has substantial expert potential. The Council of Europe has accumulated serious experience in the area of lawmaking. Life goes on and laws need improvement. And we ask experts of the Council of Europe to help us with that,” he remarked.
In April 2014 the European Union and the Council of Europe agreed that purposeful events of cooperation with Eastern Partnership Initiative countries (Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) will be implemented within the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) program. The first stage of the program began in 2015 to end in 2018. The second one began in 2019 to last till 2021. Cooperation events are supposed to help the countries bring their legislation and law enforcement practice into compliance with European standards.
