Brussels/Washington, 17/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union welcomes the intention of President Georges W. Bush to suspend for another six months the extraterritorial provision of the American legislation permitting legal proceedings and possible sanctions against foreign companies, which operate in Cuba on properties "confiscated" by the Fidel Castro regime. This is a "very good step" in line with the "memorandum of understanding concluded at the London trans-Atlantic summit in May 1998, indicated the European Commission spokesperson, this Tuesday.
This Tuesday, day of the expiry of the last derogation conceded by his predecessor in the White House, Georges Bush should confirm that title 3 of the Helms-Burton legislation against Cuba will not be applicable for the next six months. The right to complaint of American citizens against foreign companies in Cuba, susceptible of leading to a near paralysis in such activities, notably for Europeans and Canadians, is thus suspended in virtue of the discretionary power of which the American Presidency has been making use, every six months since the adoption of this law in 1996. The move allows to avoid an attack by the Union before the World Trade Organisation, while exposing itself to the fury of the Anti-Castro groups in the United States. Mr Bush, had undertaken during his election campaign to harden the tone with Cuba, had announced a few days ago a new group of measures aiming to ensure a stricter respect for the other provisions of the embargo, notably the restrictions on travel and financial transfers to the island. He also called to the strengthen support for dissents against the Communist regime and human rights militants in Cuba.
However, the spokesperson recalls that the aim remains to gain the abrogation of all the territorial and unilateral legislation, including the ILSA (which, it seems, will last beyond its expiry date, set for next 5 August). The Council also dealt with it, on Monday (see yesterday's EUROPE of, p.6), while anticipating the probable prorogation by the American Congress of this legislation, which aims to discourage non-American investments in Libya and Iran. The House of Representatives has just voted in this direction and the Senate is preparing to follow it. The laws imposing unilateral sanctions that have extraterritorial effects such as the ILSA, are sources of unnecessary and sterile divergences between us, have prejudicial effects on the development of trans-Atlantic cooperation and compromise our joint efforts to fight against terrorism and proliferation, underlined the EU 15, in the conclusions adopted without debate, by objecting that such laws constitute a violation of international law and the sovereignty of States and attack the rights and interests of the European Union.