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MEPs
warn that the EU will weaken its Common
Position towards Cuba
International
Committee for Democracy in Cuba.
Brussels, June 8 - Several Members of the
European Parliament yesterday expressed
their concern that the EU will further weaken
its policy towards Cuba in its June review.
The Council's draft showed that the EU's
diplomatic sanctions, now only temporarily
suspended, will be probably put to an end
unconditionally, said Michael Gahler, MEP
for EPP-ED, in a hearing at the European
Parliament.
The EU introduced the diplomatic measures
after a massive crackdown against the Cuban
opposition in 2003. They had been temporarily
suspended in 2005, despite the fact that
the Council repeatedly admitted the situation
of human rights in Cuba hadn't improved
at all. The Common Position is expected
to be reviewed in a meeting on 18 and 19
of June. In a hearing co-hosted by MEPs
Peter Štastný (EPP-ED), Marco
Cappato (ALDE), Józef Pinior (PES),
Zuzana Roithová (EPP-ED), José
Ribeiro e Castro (EPP-ED), Edward McMillan-Scott
and the International Committee for Democracy
in Cuba the speakers said that the EU shouldn't
weaken its Common Position without signs
of improvement in human rights in Cuba.
Józef Pinior, the Vice-Chairman
of the Parliament's Subcommittee on Human
Rights, said all the objective reports on
Cuba acknowledge the repression and denial
of basic rights and that, "Cuba remains
one of the last countries in the world not
to let the ICRC inspect its prisons."
Another MEP José Riberio e Castro
said that the Commission and Council should
take a tougher stance after the Cuban regime
"offended the European Parliament by
not allowing the Ladies in White to come
to Brussels to receive the Sakharov Award
granted in 2005." He further stated,
"The European Commission should not
bow to Cuba."
Blanca Reyes, an exile member of the Ladies
in White movement of wives and mothers of
the Cuban political prisoners, said: "The
EU's solidarity with the political prisoners
helped to contain and prevent even worse
repression from occuring. Trade and economic
interests shouldn't be the primary concern
of the new policy." Another Cuban speaking
at the event, Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés,
one of the 16 conditionally released political
prisoners, said: "The Common Position
showed the EU's will to contribute to changes
in Cuba. Its inconsistency now is not helping,
and moreover is allowing more time for the
tyranny to continue."
John Caloghirou from EC DG Development
participated in the debate and explained
that the EC also wanted to promote democracy,
but saw dialogue and engagement as one of
the ways of doing it. He added that there
are a lot of funds to assist independent
civil society in Cuba, but sometimes the
European NGOs are afraid to work there.
María Luisa Bascur presented a policy
paper by a group of European NGOs working
in Cuba. "Neither the EU, nor its Members
States, should engage in any type of humans
rights dialogue with Cuba without the unconditional
release of its political prisoners. Their
release is a test of the real willingness
of the Cuban authorities to have an authentic
dialogue, and not simply a monologue, with
the EU," she said.
The event, held in the European Parliament,
was co-organized by the International Committee
for Democracy in Cuba, a gathering of prominent
statesmen and personalities founded by Václav
Havel, with the contribution of People in
Peril, a Slovak NGO, and People in Need,
a Czech human rights and development NGO.
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