The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus will soon resume discussions about future steps to be taken to respond to the wrongful application of Pole’s Cards in Belarus. The statement was made by Igor Karpenko, Chairman of the International Affairs and CIS Relations Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, BelTA has learned.
A session of the Commission will take place soon. Belarusian MPs and representatives of interested government agencies will discuss the ruling of the Constitutional Court that says that the Polish law on Pole’s Cards runs contrary to international law norms. It is necessary to think through the steps Belarus should take in its foreign policy, said Igor Karpenko. It is possible that Belarusian MPs might cooperate with parliamentarians of other countries, who are also concerned about these Pole’s Cards. Those are, for instance, parliamentarians of Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia where Pole’s Cards are issued.
Igor Karpenko said he hopes the Polish parliament will join the discussion. Up till now Polish MPs have been deliberately trying to avoid discussing this hot issue with their Belarusian colleagues. According to the source, the Belarusian side has repeatedly suggested settling the dispute through negotiations. Nevertheless, the Polish side has been unwilling to discuss the matter seriously. In particular, Belarus’ proposal to appeal to the Venice Commission together with Poland to request an independent legal assessment of the Pole’s Card law has been turned down.
Igor Karpenko said that he had sent a letter to Andrzej Halicki, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Polish Sejm, before the Constitutional Court issued its ruling on the Pole’s Card. The letter outlined reasons for appealing to the Constitutional Court and suggested that the two parliaments should discuss the problem. However, in a recent interview Andrzej Halicki denied any contacts with Belarusian MPs. The statement was not well received in Minsk since the letter had been sent via diplomatic channels and the fact has been documented.
Instead of a serious discussion about the Pole’s Card Andrzej Halicki decided to return to the matter of the alleged illegitimacy of the Belarusian parliament. According to Igor Karpenko, the Polish MP has no right to determine the legitimacy of the Belarusian parliament since it is Belarusian laws that determine the fact. Igor Karpenko said: “It was also surprising because Belarus is a member of such respected interparliamentary bodies like the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the CEI Parliamentary Assembly and others. Yes, we are sometimes criticized by these organizations. But nobody doubts the legitimacy of our parliament”.
According to the Belarusian MP, Warsaw is playing a double game. On the one hand, Andrzej Halicki claims the Belarusian parliament is illegitimate while his deputy Robert Tyszkiewicz is looking forward to the enforcement of the Belarus-Poland local border traffic agreement that “the so-called illegitimate” Belarusian parliament has ratified. Logic is missing. Warsaw provokes such situation and raises tensions in relations between countries, said Igor Karpenko. “Polish politicians should openly tell their voters about it prior to parliamentary elections,” advised Igor Karpenko.
