Poland in the OECD

Held on 3 and 4 February, the event was attended by Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. With Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces, as special guest, the Forum included an open debate featuring Lithuania’s foreign minister, Sweden’s minister for European Union affairs, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, and the executive director of the European Endowment for Democracy. 

The Kościuszko Forum was organised in the framework of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and in cooperation with the European Solidarity Centre. Poland came up with an initiative to inspire a discussion about the prospects for Belarus in the context of continued dictatorship in the country and Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

Minister Radosław Sikorski stressed that Europe should reject Putin’s false narrative about Belarus being part of Russia; Belarus is a country that existed in separation from Russia for half a millennium. - The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were written in Belarusian, while an army under Konstanty Ostrogski thrashed Moscow in the Battle of Orsha. Belarus deserves the same as any other European nation - Minister Sikorski said at the inauguration of the Kościuszko Forum.

- It is only by acting together that we can thwart Putin’s and Lukashenko’s designs on freedom and democracy - put a hold on the new reinvention of imperialist fantasies and the degeneration of values, eaten away by a morbid lust for power -  emphasised the minister, announcing that the Kościuszko Forum will be an annual event.

The conference comprised thematic debates on history, culture, activism, and education, conceived to come up with recommendations for measures oriented at the democratisation of Belarus with support from governments, NGOs, and civil society institutions.

The participants included some 200 representatives of Belarusian democratic circles, human rights activists, members of parliaments, and experts from Poland and abroad. The attendees from EU member states added a European dimension to the event.