EPP Group considers there are no reasons to change EU's policy towards the island.

Cuba: EPP Group considers there are no reasons to change EU's policy
towards the island.
Jarosław Wałęsa MEP

Hearing on Cuba
The EPP Group in the European Parliament held a seminar on the future of
the EU's policy towards Cuba and the lack of respect of human rights in
the island with the conclusion that there are not enough reasons to
support any change of position.

"The invited panellists, as well as the EPP MEPs, agreed that the move
to lift political sanctions imposed on Cuba did not bring satisfactory
results. Any future EU decision on Cuba should go in line with progress
in the human rights area", said EPP Group Member Jarosław Wałęsa MEP,
who together with the Lech Wałęsa Institute organised the seminar.

Among the speakers were members of the EPP Group in the European
Parliament - Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (PL), Jaime Mayor Oreja (ES), José
Ignacio Salafranca (ES)-, Heidi Hautala (FIN) from the Green Group and
EP Sakharov Prize winners - Blanca Reyes, Founder of the Ladies in
White, and Francisco de Armas, representative of Oswaldo Payá, winner of
the Sakharov Prize in 2002.

According to the latest Human Rights Watch report on Cuba (November
2009), the situation on the island is economically deteriorating and
fundamental citizens rights are still disregarded. The Raúl Castro
regime has introduced a new 'dangerousness' clause, which enables the
state to imprison a citizen based on the assumption that one is likely
to commit a crime.

"The EU's open approach towards Cuba and the lifting of sanctions in
2008 has not been backed by lifting the regime's oppression against its
citizens. Perhaps the Union's policy should be similar to the one on
Belarus - sanctions should be suspended under the condition of
improvement in the human rights situation", said Jacek Saryusz-Wolski
MEP, former Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European
Parliament.

Jaime Mayor Oreja, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group, said that to change
the EU's policy towards Cuban authorities will only mean "to support a
dictatorship" as "there are no signals of a transition to a democratic
regime in the island". "The international community will make a
mistake", he stated. Instead, he proposed that the EU should firmly
support the Cuban organisations that from inside the country, claim for
the respect of Human Rights and defend the democratic values "because if
a democratic transition finally takes place, it should be for the people
of Cuba."

EPP Group: 14/01/2010 - Cuba: EPP Group says no reason to change EU's
policy towards the island (14 January 2010)
http://www.eppgroup.eu/press/showpr.asp?PRControlDocTypeID=1&PRControlID=9041&PRContentID=15622&PRContentLG=en