CUBA-EUROPEAN UNION: Outlook for Cooperation is Bleak, Report Says

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Jul 11 1996 (IPS) - The U.S. Helms-Burton law designed to stiffen the boycott of Cuba and an alleged clamping down on opposition in the Caribbean island nation make the possibility of a cooperation accord between the European Union (EU) and Cuba remote, a report released in Spain states.

The central conclusion of “Cuba and the European Union: the Difficulties of Dialogue”, a report by the Institute of European- Latin American Relations (IRELA), a Madrid-based organisation under the patronage of the EU, is that the climate for dialogue between Cuba and the European bloc is unfavourable today.

Another element making an accord unlikely was the rotation of the EU “troika”, a commission made up of the foreign ministries of three member nations. Until late June, the troika had consisted of Italy, Spain and France, the three European nations with the greatest interest in reaching an accord, given their historical and commercial ties with Cuba.

The “troikas” rotate along with the six-month presidency of the EU, and the make-up of the next few suggests that “it could be more difficult to renew negotiations” of a cooperation accord with Cuba, the IRELA report states.

European Commission vice-president Manuel Marin, who is in charge of relations with Latin America, had also said in an official communique issued in May that conditions were not favourable for presenting a proposal for a cooperation accord with Cuba to the EU executive organ.

But the report, released Wednesday in Sitges, a town in the autonomous community of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, says the EU will continue to dialogue with Cuban authorities, thus demonstrating it has greater political flexibility than the United States towards the Caribbean island nation.

“Many Europeans think the U.S. embargo” against Cuba “has not had positive results, but rather has contributed to hindering a democratic opening on the island,” states the report by IRELA, which is made up of public figures from Latin America and Europe.

The EU-Cuba dialogue had already come up against yet another obstacle: the installation of centre-right governments in Spain and France, which modified the two countries’ policies on Cuba.

The Helms-Burton law “means a greater risk for the EU than before when it comes to signing a cooperation accord,” the document underlines. The U.S. law stipulates sanctions for individuals or companies from any country who acquire companies or other property confiscated from U.S. citizens in Cuba.

The report also points to what it calls a “hardening” of the domestic political climate in Cuba, which it links with the shooting down early this year of two airplanes flown by members of a Miami-based anti-Castro organisation of the Cuban exile community, an incident that accelerated approval of the Helms- Burton law.

According to IRELA, the Cuban air force shot down the two planes just when the Cuban Council (CC), a coalition of 130 small local dissident groups, was about to hold a meeting.

The CC cancelled its meeting after several of its most influential members were detained, the report states, a “reprisal that was interpreted as a response (by the government) to the strengthening of local opposition groups and their organisational capacity.”

Everything indicates, IRELA argues, that President Fidel Castro “used the stiffening of U.S. policy against the island to make an internal readjustment, with the aim of limiting political space and curbing the possible advance of reformists and opponents.” As a result, “the position of the sectors resistant to change in the Communist Party and the army has been strengthened, at least for the time being.”

The document cites “observers” who say the airplane incident could have repercussions on Cuba’s reform process and economic situation.

It adds that the EU, Canada and Mexico see the Helms-Burton law as contrary to international law, and incompatible with the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In late April, the European Council had condemned the international sanctions stipulated by the law, and the European Commission began proceedings for negotiating a solution with the United States in the WTO.

At any rate, the report predicts, the Helms-Burton law will not change the present state of EU-Cuban relations: political dialogue, humanitarian and economic cooperation, and trade and investment will remain steady or at slightly lower levels than before the controversial law was passed.

IRELA concludes that hopes have not only vanished for the signing of an EU-Cuba cooperation accord, but also for a political opening by the Castro regime.