Havana snubs Union envoy to Cuba, reveals Nielson

Date: 11/03/04

FIDEL Castro's regime has stalled on accepting the credentials of the EU's envoy to Cuba, according to Development Commissioner Poul Nielson.

Miguel Amado, head of the Commission's delegation to the Dominican Republic, had been tasked with also representing the EU executive in Havana about a year ago.

But the Cuban authorities have not yet given a date for when they will formally receive him, "despite official indications that the ceremony was imminent three times", said Nielson, responding to a query from Portuguese MEP José Ribeiro e Castro.

EU-Cuba ties deteriorated in April 2003, when three men who had hijacked a ferry in an attempt to reach the US were executed. At the time, Havana claimed the executions were carried out in response to provocation from the US, which it alleged was seeking to destabilize the Castro government by showing tolerance to the hijacking of Cuban boats and aircraft.

In protest at the killings, the Commission decided it would apply the brake on processing Cuba's application to sign the Cotonou accord - the €13.5 billion trade and aid deal underpinning relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc.

Cuba then decided to withdraw its application the following month and, according to a Commission official handling ACP issues, has not indicated if it will resubmit it.

Last April's killings were part of a clamp down which Human Rights Watch described as the worst seen in the Pacific island in a decade.

Nielson said the Commission's office in Havana has made numerous requests that the authorities give a date for the presentation of Amado's credentials, but has never received a satisfactory reply.

"The Commission assumes that the Cuban authorities may not consider the current state of bilateral relations conducive for formalizing the accreditation," said Nielson.

Authorities in Cuba have yet to accept the credentials of the European Union's envoy to the island.

• Primary Source

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/countries/cuba_en https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/countries/cuba_en

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