EU adopts new Cuba initiative in record time

Date: 05/12/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

The EU has just successfully completed a common foreign policy initiative - in near-record time - which will prompt cheers in Madrid and Washington, groans in Havana, and blinks of amazement in Brussels.

The new common position on Cuba, adopted earlier this week without debate by EU finance ministers, does not substantially alter European policy, but the speed with which it was agreed gives added charge to what would normally be seen as another dull political statement.

After Madrid presented its proposals on 14 November, they went through national political directors and ambassadors and on to ministers in record time. The process, which normally takes many months, was completed in just over two weeks.

The speed surprised even the Irish presidency, which had planned to hand the initiative on to the Dutch for processing after Christmas. But, with an EU-US summit scheduled for 16 December, Union governments recognised it would be important to have something to barter with when pleading for American leniency over Helms-Burton.

US President Bill Clinton will decide in January whether or not to renew his waiver of the law's Title III provision allowing US firms to sue Europeans for doing business involving property expropriated from US citizens by Castro in 1959.

During the 18-day approval process for the democracy measures, Spain did not overtly make a link between the measures and Helms-Burton to avoid scaring off Paris, which wanted the Union to continue its tough line against Washington.

It was enough for Spain to say that Premier José María Aznar needed the measures for domestic consumption to give them the weight to be rushed through the Council of Ministers.

As impressive as it may be from the standpoint of internal Union politics, the new policy is unlikely to change European actions in Cuba. “EU member states have been doing their own thing in Cuba, in economic terms, and that will not change,” said a European Commission official.

Nor will the new measures revolutionise the policies of individual EU governments towards Havana, said a Spanish spokesman. (Madrid's major policy change on Cuba coincided with Aznar's election in March.)

The democracy measures were “not new in terms of what the Commission or the member states have been doing”, said the diplomat, explaining that most member states had already been holding meetings with opposition leaders and telling Castro he must make democratic reforms.

The difference was, he said, that this was the first time the measures had been “written in black and white, in a document which is legally binding”.

Under the Maastricht Treaty's Article J2, which the 15 memberstates used to adopt the measures, EU governments must ensure their policies conform with the common position.

Spain and France, traditionally Havana's strongest supporters in Europe, both have Conservative governments for the first time in years. Aznar has made a point of launching an anti-Castro policy to distinguish himself from predecessor Felipe Gonzàlez.

That in turn has had an effect on EU policy. “The old government would never have proposed a common position like this,” said a diplomat.

In their common position text, EU governments said they would more actively seek opportunities “to remind the Cuban authorities, both publicly and privately, of fundamental responsibilities regarding human rights”.

They agreed to “encourage” Havana to reform its penal code and legal system, free its political prisoners and stop persecuting dissidents. In exchange, they promised future “intensification” of economic cooperation and, eventually, talks on an economic and cooperation agreement.

Madrid's original proposals were tougher than the current version, including measures to ensure that development aid and investment destined for Cuba's population did not fall into Castro's hands.

Castro responded directly to Madrid's hard-line stance by rejecting Spain's incoming ambassador to the island, pro-testing against what he called Spain's “flagrant interference” in Cuban affairs.

Rather than Castro, however, the real victim of the new policy is the European Commission.

In approving a series of democracy measures for Cuba, Union governments have, in the space of less than three weeks, reversed an existing EU policy and created a new one - without any real input from the Commission.

When a Madrid official introduced the plan in Brussels in mid-November, External Relations Commissioner Manuel Marín was taken completely by surprise. He should not have been. After all, when Union governments agreed in October to attack Washington over

the Helms-Burton legislation, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel asked the Commission to come forward with proposals demonstrating a more positive approach towards Havana, to show the EU's interest in promoting democracy in Cuba rather than in simply fighting a non-democratic American measure.

Marín's slowness to act can be partly explained by his loyalty to Spain's former Socialist government, which had friendly ties with Havana. But Commission officials also plead impotence, saying that the policies pursued by individual member states towards Cuba undermined any common approach.

The fact that Union capitals have not prevented their firms from moving into Cuba “showed Castro he did not need political relations with the EU to have foreign investment”, said one Commission official, adding: “It was clear we were not going to get anywhere. There was little we could do in objective terms.”

Since the Commission decided in May not to follow through with plans to present EU governments with a proposal for negotiations with Havana on a trade and economic cooperation agreement, Marín and his cabinet have left the subject alone.

The Commission says it has no plans to resume the dialogue.