PARIS, January 16 /ITAR-TASS/. European Union is prepared to reconsider its relations with Cuba now that more than ten years have passed since their practical severing, a well-informed diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse in Brussels Wednesday on the condition that his name should be withheld.
“A workgroup (consisting of the experts representing all the 28 member-states of the EU) has elaborated a guideline for revising the relationship with Cuba,” he said.
Poland and the Czech Republic, the two EU member-states most hostile towards the reassessment of relations with the country, the state system of which remains based on Socialism, “have expressed their reservations” regarding the EU plans.
The matter of reverting to normal relations with the Cuban government is yet to be discussed at the level of member-states’ ambassadors to the EU, the AFP said. If they reach consensus on the issue, it will then be taken to a conference of EU Foreign Ministers.
“It’s high time the EU rearrange its relations with Cuba with a due account of current developments,” Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told reporters at the beginning of this month on the occasion of a two-day visit to Cuba.
He said he thought it would make sense for the EU to elaborate a new position on the problem, the AFP said.
The EU suspended cooperation with Cuba in 2003 after the authorities in Havana had issued jail terms to 75 dissidents who were exonerated of guilt later. Since the resumption of dialogue between the two sides in June 2008, about fifteen EU member-states have signed various bilateral accords with Freedom Island.
These countries proceed from a common platform on relations with Cuba, which they adopted in 1996 and which binds their ties with the Cuban government to “improvements in the sphere of human rights.