Brussels, 31/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish EU Council Presidency has announced deferral of the next political dialogue meeting between the EU and Cuba. Scheduled for 6 April in Madrid, the ministerial meeting was cancelled and postponed till “a date still to be decided through diplomatic channels”, states a press release from the Spanish Foreign Ministry. This decision comes further to the announcement by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton that she will not be going to Madrid (where Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is to stand in for her). It comes in a context of tension between Cuba and the EU over the question of human rights and the fate to be reserved for political dissidents on the island of Cuba (Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after 85 days of hunger strike and other dissidents have since begun a hunger strike).
While the Spanish EU Presidency hopes to restore normal relations between Cuba and the EU under a cooperation agreement (containing commitments in favour of human rights and the release of prisoners of conscience), other member states are calling for the European common position of 1996 to be maintained, linking dialogue with Cuban authorities to signs of democratic openness (mainly towards the opposition). The sixth summit between the heads of state and government of the EU and their counterparts of Latin America and the Caribbean will be held on 18 May in Madrid. (A.B./transl.jl)