Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 2003

Vol. 571 No. 1

Written Answers. - EU-Cuba Relations.

Finian McGrath

Question:

418 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's position regarding Cuba and the EU change in policy supporting the US neo-conservative line; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Cuba has achieved first world health and education standards in a Third World country; and if the Government will now adopt a policy of a more positive constructive engagement with Cuba. [19760/03]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

Irish and EU policy towards Cuba is defined by the EU Common Position adopted in December 1996. This policy, which has not changed since 1996, aims to encourage and not to enforce by external coercion of any kind a peaceful transition to democratic pluralism, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and a sustainable increase in the living standards of the Cuban people.

In line with this policy, the EU remains steadfastly opposed to the unilateral US economic embargo against Cuba. This opposition is reflected in Ireland's voting record when the issue has arisen at the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Also consistent with the basic policy set out in the common position, and indeed in implementation of that policy, the EU was obliged in June 2003 to take a number of steps following the summary trial and lengthy prison sentences imposed on 75 dissidents earlier this year for exercising their right to freedom of speech and the summary trial and rapid execution of three ferry-boat hijackers in breach of international minimum standards for the implementation of the death penalty. The measures adopted on 5 June 2003 were: to limit bilateral high-level governmental visits; to reduce participation in cultural events; to invite Cuban dissidents to national day events at EU embassies in Havana; and to proceed to an early re-evaluation of the EU common position, which had not been due to take place until December 2003.

On 21 July 2003, the General Affairs and External Relations Council, GAERC, confirmed the objectives of the common position as I have stated them at the outset. The Council noted that since the previous evaluation of December 2002 not only had there been no positive steps by the Cuban Government, but that the human rights situation had severely deteriorated as demonstrated by the large-scale arrests of dissidents, summary and arbitrary judicial processes and the severe sentences for the exercise of the right to freedom of speech and participation in public affairs as well as the breach of minimum standards for the administration of the death penalty.

The Council also noted that since the beginning of 2003 the Cuban authorities have clamped down on private small businesses, further curtailed access to the Internet, impounded satellite televisions and confiscated foreign newspapers and radios. The Council could not also fail to note that the previous month the Cuban authorities had mounted official mass demonstrations headed by President Castro against the embassies of two EU member states in Havana and that the Cuban state media had conducted an unacceptable campaign of personal vilification against certain EU Heads of Government.

Nevertheless, the Council reaffirmed the validity of the common position's constructive engagement with Cuba as the basis of EU policy towards that country to be pursued through continuing political dialogue with a view to producing tangible results in the political, economic and civil rights spheres, as well as by means of development co-operation in order,inter alia, to improve the living standards of the Cuban people. The Irish and EU policy of constructive engagement with Cuba remains, therefore, quite unchanged.

As regards health and education standards in Cuba, Ireland and its EU partners recognise the idealism which inspired the Cuban revolution, and respect its undoubted social achievements, particularly in the health and educational fields. However, we cannot accept that these achievements can be used to justify the curtailment or denial of other human rights and we believe it is necessary for the Cuban government to match those egalitarian accomplishments with similar advances across the whole sphere of human rights and fundamental freedoms.