European Union strikes deal with Cuba

Alan Gomez

MIAMI — The European Union signed a historic deal with the Cuban government on Monday, a first-of-its-kind accord that sets the stage for increased trade, travel and diplomatic ties between the 28-country bloc and the isolated Caribbean island.

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Bruno Rodriguez (left) and Spanish Foreign Affairs minister Alfonso Maria Dastis Quecedo during EU-Cuba political dialogue and cooperation agreement, on the side of an EU Foreign affairs council in Brussels, Belgium,  Dec. 12, 2016.

To reach the deal, however, the EU had to scrap a 20-year-old policy that required Cuba's communist government to improve its human rights record and change its one-party political system before any changes to the relationship could be made.

The EU's previous stance was established under a 1996 "Common Position," which stated that "full cooperation with Cuba will depend upon improvements in human rights and political freedom."

Under the new agreement signed Monday in Brussels by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the EU will continue urging Cuba to make changes. But the EU no longer requires that those changes occur before expanding economic and political opportunities between the two sides.

"The deal puts economic interests ahead of the aspirations of freedom," said Jose Azel, senior scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. "It means the European Union is turning its back on the Cuban people."

Azel's criticism of the EU's new approach echoes those lobbed against President Obama's decision in December 2014 to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of isolation.

The White House has argued that creating more economic opportunities for the Cuban people will allow them to gain a level of economic freedom from the government and put them in a better position to demand political changes. Critics, including Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Azel and others, have said the deal amounts to unilateral concessions to Cuban President Raúl Castro that will only benefit his regime and allow it to remain in power even longer.

President-elect Donald Trump has also questioned the deal Obama struck with Castro, saying the U.S. received nothing in return and vowing to craft a new one that creates more conditions that Cuba must reach before the U.S. fully normalizes relations.

Alana Tummino, head of the Cuba working group at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said the same debate is now taking place over the EU deal. She said both deals were necessary since it's impossible to expect Cuba to listen to the U.S., the EU or any other government if they don't have any kind of relationship with Cuba to begin with.

"You need to have some basis of a relationship from which to launch those (human rights and democratic) dialogues and promote those issues further," Tummino said. "If you can establish more commercial ties, re-establish diplomatic relations and the flow of goods and people, then that puts them in a much better position to talk about those issues."

EU countries are no strangers to Cuba. In 2015, EU countries exported $2.34 billion in goods to Cuba and imported $570 million. Spanish and French companies operate hotels in Cuba; the Netherlands and United Kingdom import minerals, rum and cigars; and tourists from all EU countries pour into Havana each year.

The agreement signed Monday will create even more opportunities.

"The aim of the (agreement) is to create a more predictable and transparent atmosphere for economic operators and increase their economic capacity to produce, trade and create jobs," read a statement from the EU. "The EU advocates diversification of exports from Cuba beyond the traditional products, and cooperates to disseminate the necessary knowledge among Cuban exporters to improve the access of goods onto the EU market."