Conference “Supporting Democratic Belarus through the Power of Parliaments” held on the eve of the adoption of a new Belarus resolution in the German Bundestag

On 6th and 7th November 2023 MPs from 16 national parliaments and the European Parliament gathered in Berlin for the Conference “Supporting Democratic Belarus through the Power of Parliaments”.

The conference was organized in collaboration between the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Center European Dialogue, with the support of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the Alliance of Deputies' Groups "For a Democratic Belarus".

During the event, many critical topics were discussed, such as the release of political prisoners in Belarus. A wide political spectrum was represented, including Social Democrats, Liberals, Greens, Centre-Right and Conservatives. The participants adopted a joint logo for the “International Parliamentary Alliance for Democratic Belarus” , giving it a more official character. Membership in the alliance is open for formal and informal Belarus friendship groups in national parliaments (and prospectively regional parliaments).

One day after the event the German Bundestag, which was represented at the Conference by the four MPS who form the core group of the Friendship Group Democratic Belarus namely Johannes Schraps (SPD), Robin Wagener (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Anikó Glogowski-Merten (FDP) and Knut Abraham (CDU), adopted the resolution “For a democratic Belarus in the European family” with the votes of the governing coalition. The detailed text of this resolution is accessible here: Link to the resolution text.