Brussels, 08/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has proposed to member states that the political isolation of Belarus should be ended, in the hope that support can be given to pro-European forces ahead of the parliamentary elections on 28 September. The EU has, since 2004, frozen all high level political contact with Minsk and introduced a raft of restrictive measures (on visas, freezing assets, trade restrictions, etc) in protest at the undemocratic actions and the many human rights violations of the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus has been suspended from the European neighbourhood policy until there is political change. In Avignon on Saturday, External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner suggested to ministers that political contact should be resumed with pro-Europeans, who, it would appear, are growing in importance, even within the government. Ferrero-Waldner even proposed that Belorussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov (a former ambassador to the EU in Brussels) be invited to a ministerial troika meeting on the sidelines of the External Relations Council in Brussels on 15 September. Ministers briefly discussed the proposal (reactions were “mixed”, according to one diplomat), but no decision was taken. Those around Ferrero-Waldner highlighted the need to send a “positive signal” to the pro-Europeans in Minsk before the elections on 28 September. Two recent decisions by Belarus show that things are moving in the right direction and seem to indicate that the regime is ready for further openness: the release of several political prisoners in August (“There are no longer any political prisoners in Belarus,” Ferrero-Waldner said) and Minsk's refusal to follow Russia in recognising the unilateral declaration of independence of the two breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. (H.B./transl.rt)