March
5, 2008
EU
official off to Cuba for talks
The Associated Press; Published in Business
Week
Brussels,
Belgium
The EU's top development aid official starts a four-day trip to
Cuba in a bid to heal strained relations with Havana.
Louis Michel's mission, which was planned before the official
hand-over of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul, will
be the first high-level visit of an EU official to the Caribbean
island since 2005 and the first since Raul became president.
Officials at EU headquarters say they are keen to hear out senior
Cuban officials on whether changes, including economic and political
reforms, are in the works now that Fidel has retired.
Michel's spokesman, John Clancy, said the European Commission
wanted to see "the resumption of an open and constructive
political dialogue" with Cuban leaders, a move Havana remains
hesitant to endorse after the EU slapped political sanctions against
the island in 2003.
The EU has since suspended those measures, but ties have remained
icy.
Clancy said Raul's appointment as president "constitutes
a new situation and Commissioner Michel has expressed his willingness
to engage in a constructive political dialogue with President
Raul Castro."
He added that Michel was "particularly interested to learn
more, to listen, to hear about" Raul's intentions over possible
political administrative and economic reforms that might happen.
Clancy said the EU was eager to resume talks on a wide range of
issues related to climate change, the environment and on closer
cooperation with Cuba on humanitarian aid issues.
Michel was scheduled to meet senior Cuban lawmakers and Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque.
"The dialogue should cover all topics of mutual interest,
including the political, human rights, economic, scientific fields,"
Clancy said.
The EU's 27 governments reached out last year to Raul to restart
regular bilateral talks on various issues, including human rights.
In the wake of Europe's olive branch, Cuba invited Michel to visit
the island after EU nations decided to suspend sanctions that
were put in place in 2003 to protest the detention of 75 dissidents
accused of working the U.S. to undermine Fidel Castro's government.
Cuban authorities then released 16 for medical reasons, and the
EU suspended the measures in January 2005, restoring diplomatic
relations and scrapping its ban on talks with Cuban officials.
Copyright
2008. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
