A View From Europe: Cuba Libre in Brussels

Add a new issue to the list of policies on which the United States and the European Union disagree: Cuba.

The EU recently lifted its diplomatic sanctions against the communist country, even though it knew well that the U.S. would criticize the move. The diplomatic sanctions prohibited contacts between high-ranking European and Cuban politicians. The sanctions were imposed in 2003 after the Fidel Castro regime arrested 75 dissidents. At the same time, the EU strengthened its contacts with politicians of the Cuban Opposition.

{mosads}The EU attributed its decision to lift those sanctions to the recent “regime change” in Cuba, although the decision also includes a warning that the sanctions will return if the human rights situation in Cuba does not improve.

Spain lobbied hardest for the policy change. The Spanish government believed there to be evidence that Cuba’s government was entering a period of liberalization after the retirement of President Fidel Castro and the ascension of his brother, Raul.

The European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, argued that the EU should try to foster further political change in Cuba. She said that “there will be a sort of review to see whether, indeed, something will have happened.”

The EU approved a set of conditions on Cuba in return for sanction-free relations. These include the release of all political prisoners, providing access to the Internet for Cuban citizens and allowing EU delegations arriving in Cuba to meet both members of the Cuban government and opposition leaders.

Despite those caveats, there are a number of critics of the new policy. The Bush administration, for example, said it sees no significant signs Raul’s regime was loosening its grip on the Cuban people.

And the EU’s new tack on Cuba is not a welcome change in some parts of the EU itself. In fact, European countries are rather split on the Cuba question. Several EU countries wanted Cuba to first demonstrate that it is ready for a new start and that the human rights situation is improved. That opposition is so strong as to raise doubts that the change in policy will be permanent.

It is more likely that the lifting of diplomatic sanctions will be repealed in the face of the continued imprisonment of political opponents of the regime. While 16 of the arrested Cuba prisoners were released on medical parole and another four were freed into forced exile in Spain, there are still more than 200 dissidents serving jail terms. The handling of this situation will determine the future EU policies towards Cuba.

The country definitely is at a crossroads here, which could bring a change for good and effect the picture former Pope John Paul II painted 10 years ago: “May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba so that this people, which is looking for the truth, which is working to progress and which longs for comfort and peace, may look to the future with hope.”

Geiger is founder and managing partner of Alber & Geiger, a leading EU government relations law firm with offices in Brussels and Berlin. Before that, Geiger was head of the EU Law Center of Ernst & Young, and president and CEO of Cassidy & Associates Europe. He has written a handbook on lobbying the EU.