Aliaksandr Milinkevich’ election platform points
"Let's Make Belarus True Europe!"
(Draft)

Belarusians deserve to live better, more prosperous and free. What prevents this? It is that the leadership, while proclaiming the state for the people, has, in fact, built a state for themselves.

It is not normal. And we, the team of Aliaksandr Milinkevich, know how to change the situation without the chaos, revolutions and shock therapy. We have a blueprint for changes to draw the Belarusians closer to the European level of life within five years. A nation that has suffered so much, deserve to be called human beings .
Today's place and role of Belarus in the world does not match its capabilities, capacities and national interests. The main reasons why are inconsistent and unsystematic policy of the present leadership of the country in finding reliable partners, self-isolation from united Europe and a stubborn reluctance to build our lives by the standards of the civilized world.

The experience of our neighbors shows that despite all the difficulties and problems, European integration is the only promising path for Belarusians as well. Therefore we advocate a rapprochement with united Europe, which will contribute to our country's prosperity and the realization of its rich human potential, guarantees state independence and the preservation of its national identity.

І. Responsible authority – a fair society

The state must serve each of us, not the officials. We must really make them servants of the people. To do this we must return democracy and, first of all normal, elections and real local self-government in compliance with the European Charter.

We will restore the democratic principles of the separation of powers declared by the 1994 constitution and hold elections for all bodies of government according to international democratic standards.

Effective protection of citizens' rights is impossible without fair, independent and impartial courts. Courts should not be dependent on the executive branch and will be brought out of its political, financial and administrative influence. Citizens will have the right to directly elect and recall judges. We will provide equal opportunity for all residents to access the courts and will make legal services available.

A just society is also not possible without freedom of speech. People have a right to unbiased and truthful information. Proper conditions of work and application principle of registration will be introduced for all the media.

The state monopoly on the media and discriminatory procedure for the accreditation of journalists will be abolished. We will oblige officials to provide full information to the media. We will ensure equal rights to media of different forms of ownership, guarantee all printed media the access to the national distribution system.

We will repeal all discriminatory laws that obstruct the activity of non-governmental organizations and trade unions and violate the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies will go about their direct duties, and not political persecution of dissidents.

ІІ. Economy

Economic growth for all. Belarus is able to maintain annual economic growth at 7-10%, even with the full transition to market prices for oil and gas, provided the economy will be receiving up to 10 billion annually in foreign direct investment. Despite talking and propaganda, the government of Belarus failed to reach a breakthrough investment. The current government seeks to "earn" from investors before they invest their money here.

Our policy – investment is not for the authority but for the people. We will create the most favorable conditions and safeguards at the level of the most leading and successful economies in the world for all investors who create new high paying jobs. By providing adequate investment policy, within 5-7 years we will be able to completely upgrade the Belarusian industry, to replace the jobs in outdated Soviet industries with new ones in advanced high-tech economy of the future. Our goal is one million of such jobs over five years.

At the same time, we will be cautious about the privatization of strategically important enterprises, transit facilities and other life support systems. We will maintain these facilities in state hands until proper conditions are created for their privatization, without harm to national interests and welfare of citizens.

Private ownership of land must be legally enshrined and firmly protected by the state.

We guarantee a transparent budget. We will not shift the responsibility for incompetency of officials to our children and grandchildren. Therefore, the norms requiring the balancing of all budgets in the country will be legislated. Education and health will be assigned the status of the priority areas of fiscal policy. We will ensure stability of public finances by ending unnecessary public expenditures and investments in facilities, which are little used by the ordinary people. We will carry out a tax reform that will limit the number of existing taxes and the amounts of taxes. We will adopt the law on fiscal transparency and ensure that every citizen of Belarus is able to know where the taxpayer money goes.

We will support private business. The development of private business is the basis of economic well-being of any modern state. We will introduce liberalization of not only the ten percent of the Belarusian economy that is made up of private sector, but of the entire national economy, ensuring equal conditions for economic activity for private and public enterprises (in areas such as hiring of labor, access to credit, etc.) .

Stability of the rules of the game is key to business. Frequent and unnecessary changes in laws and legal acts regulating the business activities will be abolished, number and size of taxes and the number of inspections will be limited, and unnecessary licenses and other restrictions will be canceled.

We will create the most favorable conditions for lending to private business through the development of microfinance, the creation of competition in the banking market, including through the attraction of foreign banking capital.

We will use the transit potential. Advantageous geographical position of Belarus is working poorly for the economy. The current leadership has created such an environment for transit trade flows that foreign cargo traffic goes round pass our country. Energy wars with Russia, threatening the transit of energy to EU countries, happen almost every year. Our task is to improve the image of Belarus as a reliable and responsible transit country, encourage large logistics companies to work with our country through the creation of an enabling business environment, modern infrastructure and guarantee of property rights.

Energy conservation instead of a nuclear power plant. We abandon the plans to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant and will invest the saved money in the modernization of existing heat and electricity generating facilities. By increasing the efficiency of existing facilities by 1.5-2 times, we will save the amount of energy that is generated by two nuclear reactors.

We will make energy efficiency of housing of the Belarusian citizens a priority of the investment policy and cooperation with international organizations (EU, World Bank). Massive investment in energy efficiency on the basis of modern technologies will reduce energy consumption by 2-3 times per 1 sq.m. of living space, which automatically will result in lower costs for citizens.

We will maximally encourage investing in proven practices of alternative energy sources (biogas, biomass, wind) and energy-saving technology. We will mobilize the attraction to the country of the European experience of alternative energy. As a result of a combination of measures on energy efficiency and development of alternative sources of energy Belarus will be able to significantly reduce its dependence on oil and gas in the near future.

Efficient agriculture. In supporting the agricultural sector we must move from “campaign” approach and haphazard funding of unprofitable state enterprises to long-term crediting of all agricultural producers, regardless of ownership, under the full technological cycle. This will create favorable conditions for the wide entrance of Belarusian agricultural producers to European markets. Thus, we will save a lot of money, which now flows over in the inefficient agricultural sector, and create conditions for strengthening profitable enterprises and creating farms.

ІІI. Social policy

The state should guarantee a decent standard of living of the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, WWII veterans, participants of military conflicts and other categories of citizens, who have rendered services to the country. We will return to the issue of social benefits for pupils, students, pensioners and other vulnerable groups of people. We will reduce the cost of the state apparatus by legislating the limit of the number of civil servants who are paid from the budget.
 

Provide the Belarusian youth with European education! A modern competitive economy requires a business environment conducive to innovation, modern system of education and science, and skilled labor force. We will reduce or completely abolish the income tax, which will be invested in modernization of manufacture and use of modern technology.
 

We will set up a modern European system of business education and retraining in Belarus. We will eliminate all restrictions on international contacts of Belarusian universities, teachers and students and will encourage internships, exchanges and joint projects to bring to Belarus modern knowledge and technology. Obligatory job assignment of graduates will be replaced by the right to choose their first job. We will stop the commercialization of education.

We will invest in the material and technical base of Belarusian universities and research institutions to create the conditions for research and innovation, and provide a higher level of teaching of foreign languages.

We will join Belarus to the Bologna process – European unification program of educational standards which have been already joined by all Belarus’ neighbors, including Russia. This will improve the level of university education, will allow Belarusian students to study in any of European universities, and teachers to undergo training in European research centers. We will ensure recognition of Belarusian diplomas in the EU, and European in Belarus so that those Belarusians who studied abroad are able to return home and realize themselves at home rather than seek employment abroad.

Quality higher education is impossible without high-quality secondary schools. We will increase the prestige of the teaching profession by raising salaries and improving the material base of educational institutions. We will discontinue the shameful practice of using schools to make extra money, extortion of parents and child labor.

The reform of housing and communal services. We will conduct a consistent real reforming of housing and communal services system on the basis of the best European practices. We will carry out the transition from the state monopoly of housing maintenance to the development of competitive private service companies, partnerships and other business forms to improve services and reduce the cost of housing maintenance.

Affordable medical care. The health system will be built to be accessible to all groups of citizens. The development of private medical care will not be hindered, however a competition must exist there; people will be able to choose where and from whom they receive medical services. However, the state will control the cost and quality of services in this area.

We will also develop health insurance system using the best international experience.

We will take care of retirement today! There will be a gradual transition to a savings retirement plan, because today pensioners are financially maintained by the working population, which decreases in numbers every year. To ensure that our children have a pension, we need to take care of the pension reform early.

IV. Foreign policy.

The foundation and the first priority of international politics are national interests and their consistent defense. The constant maneuvering between the East and the West and situational trade of foreign policy orientation should be left in the past.
 

For European integration. The strategic goal is Belarus' full integration into Europe. Belarusians is a European nation that should develop in a European context. After a regime change in Belarus, the European Union may become the main factor of our country's political and economic stability, the largest source of investments and financial assistance. In the short term Aliaksandr Milinkevich will work to create a visa-free space with the EU, free trade zone, as well as opportunities for work and training of Belarusians in the EU countries. Belarus also will have full-scale engagement in the European Neighborhood Policy, sign an association agreement with the EU and become a member of the Council of Europe

Aliaksandr Milinkevich, as a Belarusian politician who is recognized in united Europe and who has good relations with EU leaders, is able to lead our country to the achievement of this goal.

For the good-neighbourly relations with Russia. Belarus and Russia, as two independent states, should have good-neighborly and mutually beneficial relations. They will be based on a healthy pragmatism and mutual respect for national interests of our countries. In relations with Russia we do not need paper fraternal unions, energy, dairy, sugar and other wars, but stable transparent bilateral relations between independent nations.

State security. We see Belarus a neutral state and advocate country’s exit from military alliances and non-adherence to them in the future.

To preserve the independence and political stability of our country we need a modern combat-ready and a professional army. We advocate for a gradual transition to a professional army and the gradual abolition of compulsory military conscription. But already today, every citizen should have the guaranteed right to alternative service.

This document is a draft version of the election platform that will be updated by obtaining feedback from citizens, experts, practitioners and activists of the campaign.