MIAMI, United States. – The high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said this Friday in Havana that the community bloc will send a human rights rapporteur to the island, but that it will not impose “changes” to the Communist regime.
“The European Union has neither the capacity nor the will to impose changes in Cuba, but we do want to have a framework for dialogue on everything that unites us and differentiates us, without taboos or prohibitions,” said the official, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Borrell also referred to “the situation created before, during and after the demonstrations and arrests of last July 21”. For the European official, the right to protest “is at the heart of the values on which the European Union has been built.”
“We give this a priority relationship in our international relations,” he said.
Borrell specified that the visit agreed with the Cuban counterpart will be next November and will correspond to Eamon Gilmore, special representative of the EU for Human Rights.
According to EFEthe high official also He assured this Friday that the community bloc hopes to “count” on Cuba to “promote respect” for the “sovereignty of Ukraine.”
For the EU it is “important to explain to Cuba” the position of the bloc of Twenty-seven since the Island exercises the presidency pro tempore of the Group of 77 and China (G77).
Last Monday, a group of seven NGOs they urged Borrell to guarantee that human rights are at the center of the European Union’s relations with the Cuban government.
Through a open letterthe organizations recalled that on the Island there is a continuous repression by the authorities against those who try to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
Likewise, last week the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) asked Borrell that during his stay on the Island he advocates for the release of political prisoners. The Madrid-based organization also urged him to demand that the Cuban regime comply with the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) between the European Union and Havana, signed in 2016.
For its part, the Cuban opposition group D Frente considered that the visit of the head of European diplomacy “could help the Cuban authorities recalibrate their own public perception of the country they administer.”
