On behalf of the Visegrad Group (V4), Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will present a new "Marshall Plan" at the next EU summit, with a view to revitalising the Belarusian economy, the chief of the Polish chancellery announced on Monday.

As a pre-requisite to the implementation of the plan Belarus must hold new, free and fair presidential elections. This was the proposal PM Morawiecki was commissioned by the other three Visegrad Group premiers to put forward at Friday s summit in Lublin, Chancellery Chief Michal Dworczyk told journalists at a press briefing.

The support project was first mentioned by the Polish prime minister last Wednesday after a meeting with Belarusian opposition leader and former opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Warsaw.

According to the chief of the chancellery, „the plan, which includes a number of economic and other steps”, is „a proposal” for Belarus, „a roadmap” for the establishment of a stabilisation fund. The project is also about other financial mechanisms, which PM Morawiecki will report on in detail, Mr Dworczyk said.

The chancellery chief held a press conference after discussing the Belarus situation with PM Morawiecki and the leaders of Polish opposition party groups. He underlined that politicians, regardless of their party affiliations, agreed on the need to support the sovereignty of Belarus, which is also linked to sustaining Poland s security and stability.

In response to a journalist s question, Mr Dworczyk described Monday s talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the Russian resort city of Sochi as a „regular bilateral meeting”.

„Let s wait for the results,” he noted, stressing that it would be unacceptable for Russia to intervene – in an extraordinary manner – into the events in Belarus, thus influencing the democratic processes.