By appeasing Cuba’s communist regime, Europe is betraying the humanist ideal at the core of its political identity, writes former dissident Vaclav Havel.
“One of the fundamental pillars of Europe’s political architecture is a strong and enduring belief in the universal validity of equal, universal, and inalienable human rights,” he says. But, 20 years on from the collapse of Europe’s communist states, the EU still fails to side with the island’s people against the regime, notes Havel, former president of Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic.
The June 15-16 meeting of the EU’s General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) discussed EU-Cuban relations is an occasion to note that the Cuban government has failed to address EU demands that Havana release all political prisoners and stop persecuting dissidents and independent civil society groups.
The Council reaffirmed its determination to engage in dialogue with representatives of civil society and the pro-democracy opposition and reiterated the right of Cuban citizens “to decide independently about their future.” It expressed serious concern about the lack of progress on human, civil and political rights, and political reforms.
High-level visits should “always” involve discussion of human rights and, “when appropriate” meetings with the pro-democracy opposition. The council called on the Cuban authorities to allow “unimpeded contacts with civil society in the margin of high level visits.”
But recent EU delegations have signally failed to engage opposition groups, while some senior EU politicians have explicitly declined to meet dissidents while expressing their support for the communist regime. At a high-level visit earlier this year, Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, refused to meet with the dissidents’ relatives group Women in White (Damas de Blanco) and declined requests to raise the issue of political prisoners.
“European politicians and diplomats should remind their Cuban partners of their obligations,” Havel insists. “They should also be in contact with Cuban civil society to express their solidarity with the families of the political prisoners.”
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