MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU-Cuba relations straining

The European Parliament said Thursday that the European Union's political dialogue with Cuba has not led to greater freedom on the island or improved bilateral relations, and member states should “act accordingly”.

The joint resolution sponsored by the European Popular (PPE), Socialist, Liberal and Green parties was approved by an overwhelming 560-33 vote, with 19 abstentions. "Cuban authorities have not provided the significant signals that the EU has been demanding relative to full respect for fundamental liberties and, especially, freedom of expression and political association", says the resolution.

European legislators also condemned "the worsening repression" in Cuba, as well as the increase in the number of political prisoners and the ban on the Women in White - relatives of jailed dissidents - from traveling to Strasbourg, France, last December to accept the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament.

The Women in White movement includes wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and other female relatives of the 75 dissidents arrested and sentenced in spring 2003 to jail terms averaging 20 years. The prisoners - mostly democracy advocates and independent journalists and librarians - were convicted of "undermining the revolution.

"These actions are a disappointment for aspirations for improved relations between the EU and Cuba, the principal goal of the changes introduced by the Council in January 2005" says the resolution calling on the Council of Europe, which is made up of the EU foreign ministers, to "act accordingly".

In January 2005, the Council of Europe accepted a Spanish proposal and lifted diplomatic sanctions against the Cuban government imposed in 2003 in response to the arrest and conviction of the dissidents.

The EU tried to normalize relations with Havana, without abandoning the objectives previously set forth in its Common Position on Cuba: peaceful democratization, promotion of basic rights and freedoms, and improvement in living conditions of all Cubans.

During 2005, however, Cuba did not set free even one political prisoner and the number of prisoners actually has grown from 294 in 2004 to 333 at present, according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a dissident group.

The call for EU member states to "act accordingly" was made after conservatives and liberals, --supporters of restoring the sanctions--, plus Socialists and Greens agreed that "the current climate of relations and the prospects for advances are better with the previous policy" argued Spanish Socialist Eurodeputy Raimon Obiols.

The mild diplomatic sanctions imposed by the European Union on Cuba in 2003 included restricting official visits to the island and inviting dissidents to embassy receptions.

The European Union's member states plan to formally review relations with Cuba in June. The European Parliament's resolution also called on Havana to permit "the immediate departure from the island" of the Women in White so they can receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience and asked its president, Josep Borrell, to do "everything within his power" to give the prize to the recipients.

However the European Parliament presented the 2002 Sakharov Prize to Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, who was allowed to travel to Europe to receive the award in person.