EU Priorities and Cuba: Knowing When and Whom to Engage in Dialog With

Since Spain's left of centre government took power in March 2004, Madrid has been most active in lobbying to revise the EU's common position to the Cuban opposition, Andrew Beatty writes in the EU Observer.

Diplomats said on Tuesday that they would continue to engage with Cuba's opposition but were looking to do so in a more productive way, leaving the path open for talks with government officials.

In real terms, this means that the EU would put an end to the largely symbolic move of inviting dissidents to national festivities at EU embassies, a move that has seen Havana restrict European diplomats' access to top Cuban officials.

The Spanish leaders (Zapatero, etc) wanting to break off with Cuban opposition figures for the sake of relations with Fidel Castro are the same humanists who haughtily state that they shouldn't have to kowtow to Washington and who refuse to stand for the American flag. Isn't it good to know to what extent Europeans — contrary to those oafish Americanos — have their priorities straight?

Strangely enough, "the move has not gone down well with Cuban pro-democracy campaigners." Said Oswaldo Paya, a 2002 laureate of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize:

[The EU governments] can act according to their interests and abandon this ethical position, for reasons of their interests. But what no-one can say, without insulting our intelligence, is that to abandon this position and destroy these acts and symbols is in the interests of Cuba and peaceful change.

(Gracias para GS)

LD Update (gracias para RV): Mariano Rajoy pidió al presidente del Gobierno que en lugar de "compadrear" y de reducir su política exterior a hacerse "amigo de dos dictadores bananeros, un tirano como Castro y un desequilibrado como Chávez", se dedique a defender los intereses de los españoles. El presidente del PP se preguntó "qué tiene que decir ahora" Zapatero tras la última ofensa de la dictadura castrista con la expulsión de varios políticos europeos, entre ellos dos ex senadoras populares.