SPANISH RESPONSE TO MAY 17-18 EU FMS MEETING

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 001763

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2014
TAGS: PREL SP EUN
SUBJECT: SPANISH RESPONSE TO MAY 17-18 EU FMS MEETING
DEMARCHE

REF: STATE 104199

Classified By: Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Political Counselor, for Reasons 1
.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) We delivered reftel demarche on May 14 to Enrique
Mora, Director of the MFA's Office of EU Foreign Policy and
Common Security. Mora said that the new Spanish government
would maintain Spain's previous policies on the issues being
discussed at the next EU General Affairs and External
Relations Council meeting. On ESDP issues, he said that the
GOS would continue to support the idea that European defense
policy should complement and reinforce NATO, and not become
an alternative to NATO. Mora said he did not see anything in
the Headline Goal for 2010 or the Battlegroups proposal that
was inconsistent with NATO. He stated that the only proposal
that may be of concern was the idea for a separate European
tactical planning unit in Belgium.

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Western Balkans
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2. (C) Regarding Croatia, Mora said that he agreed that
Croatia was not making sufficient progress on the issues of
detaining Gotovina and providing for the return of refugees.
He said that these issues would be taken up at the next EU
meeting, in June. As far as continued negotiations on entry
into the EU, Mora said that the EU does consider Croatia to
be a functioning democracy and a functioning market economy,
which are the two criteria necessary for discussions to
proceed. Depending on the June discussion on how to handle
Croatian shortcomings, Mora said he saw a high-probability
that Croatia would be included in entry negotiations along
with Romania and Bulgaria.

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European Neighborhood Policy and Russia
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3. (C) Regarding the EU's periphery, Mora said that the
European Neighborhood Policy document would not be discussed
at this next meeting, but that it would be on the June
agenda. Spain's most notable request on this matter will be
in requesting that Morocco and Algeria be included in the
policy. Mora said that the EU continues to work on getting
the Russians to live up to their troop withdrawal commitments
in Georgia and Moldova, but that he saw the Russians holding
out for financial reasons.

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EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit
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4. (C) Mora said he did not know of any new EU projects or
funding that would be on the table at the next EU-Latin
America and Caribbean Summit. He added that he didn't
believe that any progress could be made on EU-Mercosur
negotiations until there was a commitment to restart the Doha
Round discussions.

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Cyprus and Turkey
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5. (C) On Cyprus and Turkey, Mora said that the EU had acted
on April 29 to begin ending the isolation of the Turkish
Cypriot community, and that the only discussions at next
week's meetings would be some talks on how to certify the
direct entry of Turkish Cypriot products into the EU. On
Turkey, he said that Spain also looked favorably on the
reforms passed by the Turkish parliament. He said that Spain
and Italy (and to some degree, the United Kingdom) were
supporting EU membership for Turkey, but that France and
Germany had major reservations. Mora said he thought that
Germany might be swayed at some point because of its
commercial interests in Turkey, but with the issue of German
citizenship for residents of Turkish decent stil