Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 April, Europeans and Cubans agreed to conduct a political dialogue on human rights. The EU special representative for human rights Stavros Lambrinidis was tasked with following the European side of the discussions, which will begin in June.
“We will hold a dialogue on human rights which will be followed by others and Stavros Lambrinidis has been asked to follow this process”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
Questioned about maintaining the common position of the 1996 Council, which makes full cooperation with Cuba conditional upon improvement in the human rights situation, Mogherini said she hoped that “we will gradually get closer to an agreement, and (this position) will be overcome”. She gave the example of the many bilateral visits to Cuba made by a large majority of the member states.
Mogherini also announced that the next session of negotiations on concluding an association and cooperation agreement between the EU and Cuba would be held “in June”, with the aim of finalising the agreement “before the end of the year” (see EUROPE 11282).
Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, thought that these announcements showed that progress had been made in strengthening relations between the EU and Cuba. He did not, however, confirm the visit of Cuba's President Raul Castro to Brussels for the EU-Latin America summit on 10-11 June, but only that of Pope Francis to Cuba in September. (Mathieu Bion)