Brussels, 24/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - Cooperation and development between the EU and Cuba were formally relaunched after they had been suspended for five years. An official ceremony in Havana on Thursday 23 October marked the event.
European Development Commissioner Louis Michel, visiting the island until Saturday 25, and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque signed a joint declaration establishing the general framework to guide both parties as future cooperation is progressively developed.
Both parties welcomed the resumption of bilateral relations, based on the principles of reciprocity and no-discrimination and respect for sovereignty.
“This is a turning point for EU-Cuban relations,” said Michel, and he spoke of the shared desire to deepen political dialogue that is respectful, useful and positive.
Perez Roque welcomed this progress which “opens a new phase that moves beyond past conflicts”.
The joint declaration will be a useful guide to future cooperation in areas of common interest, such as the environment, science and technology, trade, cultural exchanges and natural disaster prevention and preparation. Both parties have agreed to continue to explore areas for possible cooperation. The Commission is ready to invest between €20 and €25 million in 2009 in the priority areas identified. A further sum of €2 million has been earmarked to assist in the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure destroyed by hurricanes Ike and Gustav in the summer.
On Friday 24 October, Michel was due to visit the Pinar del Rio province that was devastated by the storms to see at first hand the damage caused and assess the needs of the people.
The commissioner said that the formal relaunch of EU-Cuban cooperation was “a further step” towards normalising bilateral relations. The move comes shortly after the meeting, organised by the French Presidency, between the EU troika and the Cuban government in Paris on 16 October to relaunch political dialogue on a wide range of issues (the international financial crisis, human rights, EU-Cuban cooperation, the reform of the United Nations). Diplomatic sanctions, imposed on Cuba in 2003 after 70 dissidents were imprisoned, were suspended in 2005, before being definitively lifted by the Council in June (see EUROPE 9687). (A.N./transl.rt)