CUBA-EUROPEAN UNION: Initial Talks Pass Acid Test

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 13 1995 (IPS) - Marked by a tight-lipped silence, exploratory talks towards an eventual cooperation accord between Cuba and the European Union (EU) passed the first acid test.

Meetings held last Tuesday to Friday behind closed doors in Havana were considered satisfactory by senior EU representatives and Cuban officials.

“We have held a dialogue without complexes, without preconditions, with freedom and understanding,” said Yago Pico de Coana, the head of the European delegation, before leaving Cuba.

Pico de Coana, the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s general director for Iberian America, flew to Havana last Monday at the head of a delegation that also included those in charge of Latin American affairs at the German and French Foreign Ministries.

The mission initiated conversations on the possible signing of a cooperation accord with Cuba, the only Latin American country that lacks such an agreement with the EU.

While Pico de Coana refused to provide details of the talks to the press, he said initial expectations had been fulfilled.

And Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Isabel Allende called the talks satisfactory, stressing that they “were not unilateral conversations,” but that both delegations spoke and listened with respect.

“We are seeking a route by which cooperation between Cuba and the European Union could eventually be institutionalised,” said Allende.

Cuba has ties with 11 of the European bloc’s 15 member countries, and 80 percent of its exports to Europe enjoy preferential trade agreements.

While trade with Europe accounted for a mere seven percent of Cuba’s total in 1990, that share had risen to nearly 30 percent by late 1994, according to the Havana Institute of European-Latin American Relations.

Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU until December, accounts for 28 percent of Europe’s trade with Cuba.

It has also become Cuba’s biggest foreign investor since the Caribbean island nation’s economy began to open its doors in the late 1980s.

The Cuban question returned to the European agenda following a visit to Havana by EU Commissioner Emma Bonino in May, when she announced that the bloc was prepared to provide support for Cuba’s current economic reform programme.

The European Commission – the EU’s executive organ – approved 19.5 million dollars on Oct. 31 in medical aid and resources earmarked for making water in the public health sector potable.

Cuban officials say the country received more than 30 million dollars in humanitarian aid from the EU in 1993 and 1994.

Local analysts say the EU position encourages, in an intelligent manner, political and economic transformations in Cuba under certain conditions.

A report on Cuba issued in early July by the European Commission recommends that development of civil society and guarantees for individual freedoms and rights and growth of the private sector be considered at the time of initiating talks with the Caribbean nation.

The document also stresses that international and regional ties with Cuba are necessary to a peaceful and successful transition process towards a market economy and political pluralism in that country.

Specialists with the Havana Centre of Studies on Europe said this year could go down in history as the start of a real thawing of relations between Cuba and the EU, marked up to now by political differences.

Others, less optimistic, believe it will take a long time for the European bloc to overcome the varying stances towards Cuba among its 15 members, and to reach a definitive accord.