From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 18:30:23 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CubaNews] EU Mission to Visit Cuba on Wednesday
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
source - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
EU Mission to Visit Cuba on Wednesday
BRUSSELS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel will head
a European Union mission to Cuba on Wednesday in a bid to boost diplomatic
ties with the communist Caribbean island, a ministry spokesman said on
Monday.
Relations cooled sharply last year after a number of EU member states backed
a resolution criticising Cuba at the U.N. Commission for Human Rights in
Geneva. In protest, Havana called off a planned visit to the island by EU
officials.
"This is an exploratory mission to see whether EU dialogue with Cuba can be
restarted," Belgian spokesman Michel Malherbe said.
Michel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, will be
accompanied
by Spain's Latin American Secretary Miguel Angel Cortes on the three-day
trip.
Michel is scheduled to meet Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and
Vice-President Carlos Lage. Topics for discussion will include human rights
and Cuba's desire to play a part in the EU-ACP accord that has replaced the
Lome Convention -- a trade pact that allows low-tariff entry into the EU for
products from 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.
The EU remains concerned about Cuba's human rights record, including its
harassment and jailing of anti-government dissidents.
Cuba, ruled by Fidel Castro since his 1959 revolution, contends his country
is more truly democratic and respects "real" human rights more than its
Western critics.
The EU officials are expected to attend a dinner hosted by Castro during
their visit.
14:16 08-20-01
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