Brussels, 31/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - The continuation in Belarus of a policy of closure with regard to the outside world and lack of respect for human rights (see EUROPE 9016 and other article) has led several MEPs, mainly from Poland, to urge the EU to take stronger action against President Lukaschenko's regime. On 30 August, Jacek Saryusz Wolski (EPP-ED) briefed the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on the recent incident when he and fellow Polish MEPs Bogdan Klich, Boguslaw Sonik and Barbara Kudrycka were refused entry to Belarus. He said it was time to organise a fact-finding mission to the country to get first-hand reports and urged the Commission to take more action against Minsk, particularly since the Belarus President is planning, in Wolski's view, to take advantage of the 2006 presidential elections to strengthen his authoritarian regime even more. The MEP slammed the regime's repression of the opposition, media and civil society, including the Polish Union of Belarus. At the Socialist group, another Polish MEP, Marek Siwiec, called for a political imitative to be launched by all European institutions to step up the pressure on Belarus, and he called on the EP's political groups to join forces despite their differences. Dutch Socialist Jan Marinus Wiersma said it was ridiculous for the EP to have a delegation for relations with Belarus which cannot enter the country. We need a franc and honest debate on Russia's role here, he added.