Joint communiqué issued at the end of the visit by Louis Michel (Commissioner) to Cuba

14.3.2008

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1746/08
by Francisco José Millán Mon (PPE‑DE)
to the Commission

In its resolution of 21 June 2007 the European Parliament ‘urges the Council and Commission to continue to take whatever action is necessary in order to demand the release of political prisoners and ensure that an immediate stop is put to the harassment of political opponents and defenders of human rights’. When Louis Michel (Commissioner) visited Havana from 7 to 9 March 2008, did he remind the Cuban authorities that the release of all political prisoners has been called for repeatedly by the European Parliament and constitutes a basic priority in EU policy vis-à-vis Cuba, as the Council emphasised in its 18 June 2007 conclusions which rounded off the German EU Presidency?

Would it not have been fitting for that point to have been incorporated as the EU's position into paragraph 8 of the Joint Communiqué which Mr Michel and the Cuban authorities issued at the end of the former's visit and which does contain Cuba's position to the effect that the measures adopted by the EU in 2003 constitute ‘the main obstacle to the establishment of a political dialogue with the EU and should be definitively eliminated’?

Furthermore, how is it possible that the Joint Communiqué should state (after the abovementioned paragraph) that ‘the Commission aceptó this position’ (in the English and French texts respectively the words ‘acknowledged’ and ‘a accepté’ are used)? Does the Commission perhaps share the Cubans' view?

OJ C 291, 13/11/2008