10/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 7 March, the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Belarus on setting up a European Commission delegation in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. In a press release published on the same day, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she sincerely hoped that the presence of a Commission delegation in Minsk would help create conditions in which EU-Belarus relations could prosper. The EU is prepared to normalise its relations with Belarus as long as further progress is made in moving towards democracy, added Ferrero-Waldner. She said the signing of the MoU and the recent release of political prisoners might contribute towards this, hoping that the Belarus authorities willconfirm these signals by releasing former presidential hopeful Alyaksandr Kazulin. (A.B.)