Europe’s relations with Cuba should require improvement on human rights

Posted on Wednesday, 01.29.14

EUROPE AND CUBA



Europe's relations with Cuba should require improvement on human rights

BY MARTIN PALOUS

HAVEL@FIU.EDU



In their meeting on Feb. 10, the European Union foreign ministers are

expected to approve the E.U. position for negotiations with Cuba about a

new agreement between the two parties.



Leaders of Cuba's pro-democracy movement on the island and in exile

question whether the replacement of the 1996 so-called Common Position

by a new instrument would be driven by economic interests of the member

states and will abandon the Cuban people who desire the same civil

liberties that Europeans enjoy. They point out that the Common Position

places conditions on normalization of relations with Havana tied to

significant human-rights improvement in Cuba, and fear that the E.U.

meeting would ignore, like the CELAC meeting just held in Havana, the

increase in government repression and provide some legitimacy to one of

the world's remaining totalitarian regimes.



Is it really so?



First of all, as Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European

Commission, said recently, the Common Position is to remain in force

until a new, legally binding agreement is developed.



Even when this happens, its spirit is not going to disappear, but rather

strengthen, and human rights should remain at the heart of the

relationship between the European Union and Cuba and constitute an

essential element of a new treaty.



And all 28 member states of the European Union must agree. Several among

them were trapped for decades behind the Iron Curtain before 1989 and

returned to Europe after the revolutions during that annus mirabilis.

They went through post-communist transitions and will use their own

experience in the upcoming Cuba discussions.



Whatever happens in Brussels in a few days, the negotiations that are to

start on a governmental level between the European Union and Cuba will

take time — it can be a couple of years — and there will be a space for

public diplomacy and the participation of Cuban civil society.



The impulse to engage Havana is clear: Europe doesn't want to treat Cuba

any longer as a special case; it does not want to provide a

justification, no matter how flimsy, for the regime to blame its

repression on the need to defend the Cuban revolution.



Years ago, the regime withdrew its application to join the Cotonou

Agreement, signed in 2000 between the European Union and 75 Latin

American and African countries. That agreement aims to bring them into

the world economy. Havana withdrew its application because the Europeans

insisted that Cuba be treated like any other country; that human rights,

environmental, labor and union requirements could not be waived and

should be made a theme of "comprehensive, balanced and deep political

dialogue, leading to commitments on both sides."



Havana, which claims it wants to reform its dysfunctional social and

economic system, now seems to agree with such a status change. So let it

be, but with all the consequences!



For the Cuban dictator, the European readiness to engage Cuba in a

discussion about a new European policy is a double-edged sword. While he

hopes that a new agreement legitimizes his single-party state and his

half-hearted economic reforms, the discussion with Europeans will also

focus on the abuse of human rights, the restrictions on trade and

commerce he imposes on the Cuban people and his unwillingness to

liberate Cubans' entrepreneur potential.



Let us be clear: A meeting of the European Union in Brussels will differ

from the CELAC charade just held in Cuba.



The Europeans pledge that human rights are and will remain a central

part of E.U. Cuba policy. Cuba's human-rights activists and freedom

advocates on the island have demonstrated great courage and commitment

to freedom and human rights — fundamental European values and principles

— for over half a century. If European deeds are consistent with

European words, they should and must be heard in Brussels.



Those who are allowed now to travel abroad should explain as many times

as necessary to European diplomats the real nature of the Castros' regime.



The cause of freedom in Cuba has many friends around the world. The

upcoming negotiation between the European Union and the Cuban government

is a challenge for Cuba's democracy advocates everywhere, but at the

same time it is their great opportunity. All of us now have work to do.



Martin Palous, a former Czech ambassador to the United Nations, is

director of the Vaclav Havel Library in Prague and senior fellow at the

School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International

University. He is president of the International Platform for Human

Rights in Cuba.



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