IPS-English CUBA-EU: Hopes for Change?
 
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:55:45 -0800

 
Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Mar 10   (IPS)  - The visit to Cuba by EU Aid Commissioner
Louis Michel, invited by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque for ”exploratory”
talks, gave rise to mild hopes of an eventual normalisation of relations
between Cuba and the EU.

”The limits of Michel's efforts became clear: if the diplomatic measures
adopted in 2003 are not eliminated, the Cuban government will not
move towards a political dialogue that covers all issues, including
human rights,” a European source who wished not to be named commented
to IPS.

The EU adopted sanctions in 2003 after a crackdown in which 75 dissidents
were sentenced to lengthy jail terms and hijackers of a passenger
ferry who were trying to make it to the United States were summarily
tried and executed.

The issue was discussed at length in the official conversations held
by the European commissioner during his Mar. 7-9 visit, according
to the joint communiqué published Monday by Granma, the newspaper
of the ruling Communist Party, alongside a photo of Spain's socialist
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero celebrating his re-election
and his party's triumph in Sunday's elections.

The Zapatero administration, even against the grain of other EU members,
has been pushing for bilateral political talks with Cuba that would
not exclude any issue from the agenda.

”If the (conservative) Popular Party had won, all of the work done
so far by the Zapatero government would have been lost,” Eloy Gutiérrez
Menoyo, the leader of Cuban Change, a dissident organisation that
he formed while living in exile in the United States, told IPS.

Havana blames former Prime Minister José María Aznar of the PP, who
governed Spain from 1996 to 2004, for the stiffening of EU policy
towards Cuba in that period.

The more flexible stance taken by Spain's socialist party, the PSOE,
has since then reduced the tension and opened the door to dialogue.

Among the practical results, the two countries established a bilateral
mechanism for political consultations last year which granted Spain
the status of a privileged interlocutor in the dialogue between Havana
and the EU.

According to sources in Spain, Madrid pushed for and achieved, among
its EU partners, a consensus on the ”dubious” practical utility of
the bloc's June 2003 sanctions, which included a freeze on visits
by high-level officials to Cuba, a reduction in the bloc's diplomatic
presence in Cuban cultural events, and a decision to invite dissidents
to EU embassy receptions to mark national days.

In a news briefing on Saturday, Michel called for an end to the measures,
which were suspended in 2005, but clarified that the decision was
up to the European Council, and would depend on unanimous agreement
among the members.

Without identifying specific countries, he said that ”only a few
members” of the European bloc still held doubts or were ”wavering”
over the matter. 

But diplomatic sources consulted by IPS emphasised that a decision
to enforce the sanctions once again would also require a consensus
in the European Council.

”No one is talking about starting overàI would say that these measures
are at this time a purely symbolic question,” said a European diplomat,
who also confirmed that one of the conditions set for Michel's visit
was that he would not meet with dissidents.

The Cuban government, headed by Raúl Castro since his ailing brother
Fidel stepped down permanently on Feb. 24, considers opponents to
be at the service of the U.S. government's hostile Cuba policy and
thus is not pleased when its official guests meet with dissidents.

During his stay, Michel met with Foreign Minister Pérez Roque, Vice
President Carlos Lage, the president of parliament, Ricardo Alarcón,
and ministers Marta Lomas of foreign investment and cooperation and
Fernando González of science and the environment.

On his previous visit, in 2005, the EU commissioner talked for four
hours with Fidel Castro. However, this time around, he was not received
by either Raúl or Fidel Castro.

Some media outlets attributed that to the fact that Michel's visit
in Havana coincided with that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez,
who reached Cuba on Friday invited by Raúl Castro, after taking part
in the Rio Group summit in the Dominican Republic which put an end
to the serious political crisis that broke out last week between Colombia
and Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

In the view of members of the delegation who accompanied Michel on
his Cuban tour, the best way to promote talks is by working towards
a normalisation of relations. To do so, the EU commissioner will now
have to convince all 27 members of the bloc that the sanctions, the
main obstacle to political dialogue, should be dropped.

The sources who spoke to IPS also confirmed that Michel and the officials
who met with him did not discuss the 1996 EU Common Position aimed
at encouraging ”a process of transition to pluralist democracy and
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, via constructive
engagement with the Cuban government.”



(END/IPS/LA EU IP HD FC/TRASP-SW/PG/08)


 
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