23/08/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release Marie Anne Isler Béguin said that in order for Cuba to change, the EU and the USA should change its strategy. She also stated that the US embargo that had been supported until now by the European Union had given the “Castro regime an excuse for refusing any opening up”. The French Green will propose an emergency resolution on this subject in September's plenary and asked whether the so long-awaited opening up from Havana could come from Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, “who we know for his application of respect for Communist orthodoxy”. According to Béguin, the EU ought to seize the occasion provided in the new situation created by Castro's illness and “treat Cuba like all the other ACP countries in every respect'. So far the EU has refused to sign the Cotonou Agreement which links ACP countries together, with Havana.