NEWS

The high representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign policy, Federica Mogherini, is confident that Cuba will expand its hitherto limited economic opening, so it offered more financial support to underpin the necessary reforms that expedite foreign investment.

"We are available to the authorities and the Cuban people to share our experiences and provide financial support," Mogherini said Monday in Havana, after representatives of Cuba and the EU reviewed their relations in various areas during the Second Council Bilateral set.

The head of European diplomacy said she had observed “a clear decision by the Cuban side to update the country's development” with measures aimed at eliminating the “internal blockade”, as the complex network of obstacles and prohibitions known to disincentivize investments and economic progress. "We are available to the authorities and the Cuban people to share our experiences and provide financial support for the implementation of some of these measures," he said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez avoided ruling on the possibility of new opening measures, and limited himself to highlighting advances in recent years such as the authorization of some private activities, the creation of a special economic zone or the new constitution that explicitly recognizes private property and foreign investment.
The European Union has contributed more than 200 million euros in development cooperation to Cuba alone since 2008, mainly for projects in three sectors - sustainable agriculture and food security, the environment and climate change, and aids in modernizing the country.

Contributions to Cuba have tripled in the last two years and the European bloc is also, together, the first commercial and investment partner of the Caribbean country, where important Spanish hotel companies such as Meliá or Iberostar operate, as well as the construction giant French Bouygues and other large corporations.

The II Cuba-EU Joint Council (the first one was held in Brussels in May 2018) is the fifth high-level political dialogue since both parties relaunched their relations with the signing in 2016 of the historic Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation (ADPC) , provisionally in force since November 2017.

The ADPC is an extensive document of 89 articles that addresses various areas of bilateral cooperation, from development, prevention of climate change and the fight against crime to the protection of human rights, although the latter only occupy a brief paragraph.

The European and Cuban representatives dedicated themselves on Monday to “strengthen the monitoring of our political dialogues and at the same time launch new sectoral dialogues on agriculture, energy, climate change and the environment,” according to Mogherini's definition, which did not offer more concrete details. About the meeting behind closed doors.

"We have also continued the dialogue on the situation and cooperation in the region, and in Venezuela in particular," he said, without specifying whether both parties reached a consensus on the situation in the South American country, where Cuba unconditionally supports the regime of Nicolás Maduro while the EU denies its authority and recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

In this regard, the Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, preferred to downplay the differences between Europe and Cuba in this matter.
“The negotiated solution, the rejection of violence, the search for the creation of conditions so that a direct dialogue can take place, that the solution be political.

All these elements are the basis of the European position, and it is not a position contrary to the Cuban one, ”he told a small group of media at the end of the meeting in Havana.