Brussels - The European Union has had problems in its relationship with Belarus ever since the introduction of authoritarian power by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been referred to as "Europe's last dictator", in 1996-97. In 1997, the bloc's foreign ministers decided that the EU should cut all aid to the country which was not focused on humanitarian or democratic objectives, and decided that only the EU's central organs would be authorized to meet with Belarusian ministers.
Following a crackdown on the work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the EU in 2002 imposed visa bans on eight top officials, including Lukashenko. Those bans were lifted in 2004 after Minsk allowed the opening of an OSCE office.
But in April 2006, following a presidential election which was widely seen as rigged, the bloc brought in new bans on Lukashenko and some 30 associates accused of covering up the disappearance of four pro-democracy figures in 1999-2000, and of rigging votes and attacking demonstrators in 2004 and 2006.
That was followed in May 2006 by an asset freeze on top regime figures. The list was expanded in October 2006.
The current list includes figures such as the education, information and justice ministers, the head of state TV and radio, and the heads of the prosecution service and security police.
Belarusian regime figures are thought to have engineered the 1999 disappearances of former interior minister Yuri Zakharenko, former deputy speaker of parliament Viktor Gonchar and businessman Anatoly Krasovski and the 2000 disappearance of Russian TV cameraman Dmitry Zavadski.
Following the summer 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, Belarus unexpectedly released the last six political prisonsers it held in custody and pushed for closer ties with the EU.
Some EU member states urged the bloc to encourage such moves by lifting some at least of the sanctions. However, the EU's foreign ministers decided to reserve judgement until after parliamentary elections on September 28.
The OSCE judged that those elections "fell short of OSCE commitments for democratic elections".
Nonetheless, the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, invited Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov to a meeting on the margins of the council.
