Zapatero's Cuba initiative runs into opposition
Published: Monday, January 18, 2010 7:00 am By: EurActiv.comThe Spanish Presidency's hopes of reviewing the EU's long-standing position on Cuba were frustrated last week when influential representatives from Europe's leading political family proclaimed their opposition to the move.
Background:
Cuba is the only Latin American country which does not have a cooperation agreement with the EU, limiting European involvement to humanitarian aid programmes. According to 2009 figures from the European Commission's trade directorate, 22.6% of Cuban imports come from the EU.
The EU agreed a common position on Cuba in 1996, when Spain's José María Aznar was in power. The common position, which was heavily influenced by Aznar, maintains the stalemate in formal relations with Cuba insofar as no tangible improvements in respect of civil liberties are recorded on the island.
Between March 2003 and January 2005, the EU stepped up the level of diplomatic isolation towards Cuba in response to the jailing of 75 dissidents. These so-called 'Cocktail Wars' ended when Cuba released 14 of them in 2004.
The 1996 common position was confirmed in June 2009 under the Czech EU Presidency. The Spanish EU Presidency plans to modify the common position in a bid to smooth the bloc's relations with the island.
A panel discussion organised by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the Lech Wałęsa Institute in Brussels saw Spanish and Polish delegates reject moves by Spanish Prime Minister José Luiz Rodríguez Zapatero to rekindle relations with the dissenting Caribbean state.
Polish parliamentarians drew heavy comparisons between the situation of the people of Cuba and that of Polish citizens before 1989. Ryszard Schnepf, Poland's ambassador to Madrid, claimed that "Polish people have a special right to speak on this matter because of what we suffered. We Polish can prove that impossible things can indeed become possible".
Spanish members of the European People's Party (EPP), from the Partido Popular (PP), suggested taking lessons from Spain's peaceful democratic transition in the 1970s. "The internal dynamics are always the key. External factors can help, but are never decisive," said Jaime Mayor Oreja, EPP vice-president and leading Spanish candidate in last June's European elections.
MEPs also noticed that the Spanish Presidency's hopes of improving relations with Havana have been hindered by Cuba itself. On 3 January, Cuban airport authorities refused Spanish Socialist MEP Luis Yáńez-Barnuevo
entry into the country.
The MEP, who is chairman of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Mercosur, supports dialogue with democratic dissidents in Cuba.
EPP members defined this act as proof of the unfeasibility of the Spanish government's intentions. Yáńez-Barnuevo was himself in favour of a thaw in EU-Cuba relations, but said this would not be enough to make the island's authorities more receptive to dialogue.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said Cuba had made a mistake by refusing the MEP entry, but claimed that this would not hinder the proposed review of relations between the EU and the Caribbean dictatorship. "Isolation, confrontation, the embargo and the blockade [against Cuba] have produced no result in 50 years."
Spain is likely to encounter a number of procedural difficulties. Firstly, in order to abrogate the common position, it will have to reach unanimity among the 27 EU member states. This is unlikely to happen considering the opposition that the leading Polish party Platforma Obywatelska has expressed through its leading MEPs.
Secondly, with the Lisbon Treaty's entry into force, Spain's Javier Solana lost the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Council, which brings together the EU 27's foreign ministers, to the benefit of Catherine Asthon, the new EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
Spain might decide to push for relations with Cuba to be placed on the agenda, but it will not be in a position to broker an agreement.
The choice will be in the hands of High Representative Ashton. However, it is unlikely that she will spend much of her political credit on such a potentially divisive issue as EU-Cuba relations during the first period of her tenure.
