New articles
Constitutional Court vested with additional authority
The Constitutional Court is vested with a right to exercise compulsory provisional control over the validity of all laws adopted by the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and approved by the Council of the Republic.
It will confirm conformity of Belarus' international agreements with the Constitution, before the president signs normative and legal acts expressing consent of Belarus with the obligatoriness of international agreements for it.
The Court is vested with a right to give an official explanation of decrees and edicts of the president related to the constitutional rights, freedoms and duties of the citizens.
Judges of the Constitutional Court will check the validity of the avenues of the rule-making activity and judicial practice of courts, law-enforcement and other state bodies. The activities of top-level government officials will also be checked.
We should not lose the chance to save for descendants our cultural treasures
The Belarusian voluntary society for protection of the monuments of history and culture (BDTAPGK) is concerned with the fate of the national heritage as it sees violations of law committed by the state structures, which must act as guardians of the Constitution and laws of Belarus however in reality work towards destruction of monuments of architecture. In this connection, chairman of the Republican association BDTAPGK Anton Astapovich appeals to the pubic, political parties and mass media.
Only in the past two years Minsk, Grodno and other Belarusian localities have lost dozens or even hundreds of monuments of culture and history. Nothing can save from destruction, even putting on the State List of Historical and Cultural Values. Both local executive authorities and the Ministry of Culture, which is an authorized state body to exercise control over adherence to the legislation on protection of historical and cultural heritage, are directly related to the process of violations of normative and legislative base. This inevitably leads to more and more losses of historical and cultural treasures.
Belarus and Venezuela will increase cooperation in the energy sector and aim at the creation of a multipolar world, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the final joint communique signed in Minsk on 23 July.
The talks in Minsk have once again "demonstrated the concurrence of views on the solution of the problems and challenges that Belarus and Venezuela encounter in their striving for the creation of a multipolar world based on such principles as solidarity, cooperation and mutual respect", the document states.
Alexander Lukashenko meets Hugo Chaves
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko conferred an Order of the People's Friendship on President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez pointing out that the Venezuelan leader had done for Belarus more that any other statesmen and heads of state.
"Not a single statesman or president of other country has done as much for our country as this person has done," declared A. Lukashenko presenting the award to H. Chaves in the park in the centre of Minsk named after Simon Bolivar, the national hero of Venezuela.
Successors of Sheiman and Nevyglas appointed
Alexander Lukashenko has appointed Yuri Zhadobin, former KGB head, State Secretary of the Security Council, official sources announced.
Vladimir Makei, a presidential aide up to this point, has been appointed Head of the Administration of the President of Belarus.
Economics
Prospects for liberalizing the Belarusian economy
Head of the Mizes Scientific Centre Yaroslav Romanchuk answers the site expertby.org correspondent's questions on the prospects of liberalizing the Belarusian economy.
- In your opinion, what needs to be changed in the country to enable liberalization?
- Firstly, the government needs to be changed. It should include the people who can propose to the country a systemic reform policy.
- How do you see the main directions of this reform?
- A systemic reform implies, firstly, budget and tax reform and, secondly, banking reform, as well as a law on transparent and honest privatization. In addition, it is the adoption of a law on social guarantees which we also have proposed to the authorities. It also includes administrative reform, i.e. liquidation and neutralization of conflictual interests which are widely present in our government structures. All these reforms need to be conducted at the same time with judicial reform and provision of full-fledged freedom for obtaining information as a guarantee of transparency of processes, responsibility and absence of corruption among government officials.
As a matter of fact, the key issue is who will be managing all this undertaking. If the capital comes here, yes, it will be bad for the elite, yes, it will be bad for the national business, as it will given secondary subordinate roles. Business will pay the politics which it carries out today.
“Scientists for non-nuclear Belarus”: “Peaceful atom”, 'pro' (about) and contra
Until now experts and public have not been given any feasibility study for NPP construction. This contradicts the Aarhus Convention according to which each country signatory to the Convention, including Belarus, guarantees the right of access to information, participation of the public in the decision-making process and access to judicial bodies on environmental issues.
For the majority of the citizens who are familiar with the issue and have no financial interest in the construction of NPP it is obvious that Belarus does not need NPP. Furthermore, NPP is dangerous not only in ecological terms but also in terms of state security. It would be more reasonable to direct resources for modernization of industrial enterprises and Thermal Power Plants, energy saving programmes and science instead of allocating funds for a plainly ambiguous and extremely risky project of NPP construction in Belarus.
World Economic Crisis does not Threaten Belarus. As yet
The events that have taken place recently in the world economy more and more often raise the question: where is the economy actually going? Why are gold and oil prices tending upwards? Why is the American dollar losing its value? Isn't it time for a new world currency? What should Belarus expect from these events? Mikhail Koval, expert of a Russian company engaged in Asset Management, gives his commentary to EXPERTBY.ORG. "A lot of these problems are not urgent for Belarus yet, as the country does not have its stock market. Of course if a country has private enterprises then it has a stock market, since it is considered that when a person owns an enterprise or some part of it he can somehow transfer his possession, sell it, etc. Quite a different matter is to what extent these procedures are effective, to what extent the exchange of rights of possession of enterprises is free. If the procedure is too complicated and requires a lot of expenditures it will be difficult to attract foreign investors, and the market will not take place. Thus, in terms of the needs of the business I am engaged in, the Belarusian stock market does not exist. At least de facto.
News
Attempts to comprehend the realities of domestic economy sounded in statements at the June's session of the Republican board of directors of the Belarusian Scientific and Industrial Association (RPA BNPA). Experts spoke in favour of private and state partnership, however in so doing they urged to take thought to which side the Belarus economy is being surrendered.
Doctor of Economic Sciences Petr KAPITULA: "They will take us barehanded and for free."
MAZ transformation into joint-stock company gets underway
"We are soon to start transformation of large enterprises into joint-stock companies. They will be transformed in the near future," Vice-Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko informed. In this respect, Vladimir Semashko noted that "the government ordered to start the process at one of such enterprises - MAZ".
"We restrained privatization before, we did not sell out our companies as it happened in the neighboring countries," he added.
Law
Constitutional Court vested with additional authority
The Constitutional Court is vested with a right to exercise compulsory provisional control over the validity of all laws adopted by the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and approved by the Council of the Republic.
It will confirm conformity of Belarus' international agreements with the Constitution, before the president signs normative and legal acts expressing consent of Belarus with the obligatoriness of international agreements for it.
The Court is vested with a right to give an official explanation of decrees and edicts of the president related to the constitutional rights, freedoms and duties of the citizens.
Judges of the Constitutional Court will check the validity of the avenues of the rule-making activity and judicial practice of courts, law-enforcement and other state bodies. The activities of top-level government officials will also be checked.
Dura lex, sed… lex? Reflections against the background of the monument to Bagdanovich
Chairman of the republican society for protection of monuments Antos Astapovich answered the site EXPERTBY.ORG correspondent's questions.
In his opinion, the problem is not in moving the monument, even if it is from the central to the side alley, but that in so doing a gross violation of the Law has been committed. What we are talking about here is the level of legal awareness among those people who take decisions in the country. Mr. Astapovich gave the following reply to the question why the monument was moved: "I have always explained motivation in very simple terms. I have never sought politics or ideology as the answer lies beneath the surface. It is money in the first place. Even with the monument to Bagdanovich everything becomes very clear. Just analyse this question from the point of view of how it can be profitable. And this is very profitable: in the place where the monument stood before a big fountain is being constructed. What is the fountain? These are earth works, these are engineering networks, and these are installation works. In a nutshell, it is one of the most financially expensive works according to the construction norms and job prices. Here you come to the motivation which is to utilize as much as possible funds from the state budget."
Belarus’ historical and cultural heritage is being destroyed in peace time
Upon request of the site EXPERTBY.org, chairperson of the Belarusian republican association for preservation of historical and cultural heritage Antos Astapovich expressed his judgement of the status of protection of monuments of historical and cultural heritage in Minsk. "There is the Hague convention which stipulates that the destruction of historical and cultural heritage even in war time is a crime against humanity. This is one of the most serious war crimes. Yet in our country historical and cultural heritage is being destroyed in peace time."
News
Belarus and Venezuela will increase cooperation in the energy sector and aim at the creation of a multipolar world, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the final joint communique signed in Minsk on 23 July.
The talks in Minsk have once again "demonstrated the concurrence of views on the solution of the problems and challenges that Belarus and Venezuela encounter in their striving for the creation of a multipolar world based on such principles as solidarity, cooperation and mutual respect", the document states.
Successors of Sheiman and Nevyglas appointed
Alexander Lukashenko has appointed Yuri Zhadobin, former KGB head, State Secretary of the Security Council, official sources announced.
Vladimir Makei, a presidential aide up to this point, has been appointed Head of the Administration of the President of Belarus.
Politics and society
We should not lose the chance to save for descendants our cultural treasures
The Belarusian voluntary society for protection of the monuments of history and culture (BDTAPGK) is concerned with the fate of the national heritage as it sees violations of law committed by the state structures, which must act as guardians of the Constitution and laws of Belarus however in reality work towards destruction of monuments of architecture. In this connection, chairman of the Republican association BDTAPGK Anton Astapovich appeals to the pubic, political parties and mass media.
Only in the past two years Minsk, Grodno and other Belarusian localities have lost dozens or even hundreds of monuments of culture and history. Nothing can save from destruction, even putting on the State List of Historical and Cultural Values. Both local executive authorities and the Ministry of Culture, which is an authorized state body to exercise control over adherence to the legislation on protection of historical and cultural heritage, are directly related to the process of violations of normative and legislative base. This inevitably leads to more and more losses of historical and cultural treasures.
The issue of return to the 11-year education and termination of specialized school classes will be soon finally and forever resolved. Not a bad move in order to damage the image of the state and its leadership. Well, if the school reform has been initiated in order to divert public attention from some other, more important issues (e.g. sale of Belarusian enterprises to Russian oligarchs), then it can be understood. However, if these changes in the school system, that have been declared so loudly, are a self-sufficient occurrence in the information widespread, then their justification should be... well, so to say... further elaborated. Indeed all around us, we see the transition towards 12-year education - Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia...The majority of countries have specialization in senior classes, and those who don't have it try to create it... After long discussions and deliberations, by the way... And suddenly in the very centre of Europe there is a country which announces, that it is not able and is not willing to ensure for its pupils the same conditions as in other countries...
So who is IN FAVOUR? About switch to 11 years
Officers of the Belarus Education and Health Ministries are highly partial to the backward transition to 11-year education, they do not consider this reform timely, well thought out and rational, but they are certain that others (ministries, parents and teachers) for some odd reason are IN FAVOUR of this reform. On behalf of parents, a correspondent of EXPERTBY.ORG declares that parents are also against such school reform which leads to aggravation of the situation in education and in society as a whole.
All the concerned parties underline absence of research, discussions, consultations and competent polls on the subject. Everyone understands that starting the next reform without accomplishing properly the previous one is a rather hasty and unreasonable move by the government. Everyone understands that this will negatively affect the system of education, children's health and even the image of the country. Everyone is against. We have not however managed to find those in favour.
If medical staff gets pay raise, nothing will be left for treatment of patients
The Council of Ministers of Belarus has adopted an act which allows purchase of expendable materials for complicated operations by patients themselves, thus actually recognizing that hospitals lack funds for treatment.
Last year Belarus spent USD 164 per capita for health care needs. On average, health care expenditure in our country constitutes 4-4.2% of GDP, compared to 9% in the European Union countries and 15% in the U.S.
Lukashenko the politician knew how to fight for votes and proclaimed from the house-tops that he would remedy the situation. It was promised that in the next five-year term (2006-2010) not less than 7% of GDP would be allocated for health care. However the pre-election impulse of the newly re-elected president has come to nought - the planned funding has never reached the health care system.
In 2008 one trillion and 26 million roubles were allocated for the health care system from the republican budget. For comparison, in 2008 it is planned to spend one trillion and 240 billion for the army, while for the power institutions, the Ministry of Interior and KGB, it has been decided to allocate almost two times more of the budget funding than for the whole health care system, that is 1 trillion and 949 billion roubles.
News
According to the secretary of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Lozovik, 38 representatives of opposition parties were included in district election commissions: 17 activists of the United civic party, 5 - Party BNF, 10 - Party of communists Belarusian, 6 - Belarusian social democratic party (Hramada).
"The commissions were actually formed in a closed regime. In practice, observes and journalists were not admitted to all the sittings at which the commissions were formed, said chairman of the public association "Belarusian Helsinki Committee" (BHC) Oleg Gulak.
Reconstruction of building no. 15 at Svoboda Square will continue
The Administration of Central district of Minsk city does not see any reason to suspend design and survey works on the reconstruction of building no. 15 at Svoboda Square, which is a monument of classicism architecture of XVIII century put on the State List of Historical and Cultural Values of the Republic of Belarus.
As a reminder, on 14 March 2008 a unique two-storied building with decorated facade at the Revolutsionnaya street 17 was demolished as a result of "reconstruction" in the historical centre of Minsk. The monument of architecture is destroyed and no one is guilty of committing this crime.
Belarus and the World
Is it early to speak about a new position of Poland?
The information was broadly circulated last week regarding a new position of Poland on the issue of relations between Belarus and the European Union. The most impressive are certainly proposals from the Polish side to abandon the politics of sanctions against our country. A specialist in the field of international relations Andrei Fiodarau comments on the situation upon
request from the correspondent of EXPERTBY.ORG.
"It is a thousand pities that we cannot deny that our state is under constant threat of losing its independence. If a united Europe had joined the US economic sanctions, then for known reasons the material well-being of the population would have worsened significantly. No doubt under the circumstances in order to calm down the wave of mass disturbance, Minsk would have decided to agree to those conditions which Moscow has been continuously suggesting lately and which sooner or later would have led us to actually giving up our sovereignty."
Russia has decided to do without Belarus
Last week Dmitry Medvedev, the new president of the Russian Federation, paid his first foreign visits to Kazakhstan and Chinese People's Republic, while a visit to Belarus, which as before is viewed by a significant number of Russians and Belarusians as the closest ally of the their country, has not been discussed yet. Although this fact is not surprising, it gives grounds for revisiting the issue of relations between the two countries and for reflecting on the current status and prospects of the Belarusian-Russian relations. Should we expect any changes in these? Politologist Kyril Koktysh answers this question to the correspondent of EXPERTBY.ORG.
The first visit normally marks the priorities of the country and its leader. Selection of Kazakhstan and China as such countries logically outlines those priorities by which Russia will be guided under Medvedev.
The question "why not Belarus" does not seem legally qualified, as indeed it is hard to argue that Belarus has been a priority also before. When decisions are taken on the construction of the Baltic Pipeline System-2 and on the filling of the new pipeline with 40 million tons out of those 70 which now go through "Druzhba", i.e. through the Belarusian territory, it means as a minimum that even in the short-term perspective Russia has decided to do without Belarus and has even invested in its bypass strategy sufficiently big money, so that it would be impossible even to speak about reviewing this strategy.
The truth behind the Belarusian-American diplomatic crisis was revealed where it was expected. "I would like to inform you about the problems in our foreign trade especially those related to the position of the USA leadership", stated A. Lukashenko at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister V. Zubkov on 21 March. The Belarusian president thus confirmed that the primary aim of the crisis with Washington was not to avoid A. Kozulin's release or democratization of the republic, which is by the way not the same thing. The aim of Minsk in the crisis with Washington was utilitarian and traditional, namely to sell "faithfulness to the union's obligation" for concrete resource and financial subsidies from Russia, which was demonstrated at the Union Council of Ministers.
Lukashenko and Russian electoral combinations
Another meeting of Putin and Lukashenko supposedly has not made the relations of the two countries clearer.
I will dare to assume that in December at the highest level they discussed the conditions of Lukashenko's participation in the presidential election campaign in Russia, in the team of the current president and his successor. The purpose of the Sunday meeting was most likely to use the electoral potential of Lukashenko to their benefit.
The official visit in December and the friendly meeting in February should demonstrate that both Putin and his successor Medvedev as before remain faithful to the ideas of Russian-Belarusian fraternity in particular, and to the idea of Great Russia in general.
News
Alexander Lukashenko meets Hugo Chaves
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko conferred an Order of the People's Friendship on President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez pointing out that the Venezuelan leader had done for Belarus more that any other statesmen and heads of state.
"Not a single statesman or president of other country has done as much for our country as this person has done," declared A. Lukashenko presenting the award to H. Chaves in the park in the centre of Minsk named after Simon Bolivar, the national hero of Venezuela.
Polish leadership would like to return Belarus to Europe
The Government of Poland has suddenly decided to influence the EU strategy towards Belarus. Polish diplomats working in Brussels try to convince their EU colleagues to lift or at least lighten political and economic sanctions against Belarus. Their main argument is that any restrictive measures against Minsk are useless, while the number one purpose is to "draw Belarus from Moscow's hands."
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