SPANISH RESPONSE TO DEMARCHES ON FEBRUARY 23-24 EU

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000607 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2014 TAGS: PREL SP EUN SUBJECT: SPANISH RESPONSE TO DEMARCHES ON FEBRUARY 23-24 EU FMS MEETING REF: A. STATE 34712 ¶B. STATE 35969 Classified By: Colin Cleary, Deputy Political Counselor, for Reasons 1. 4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) We delivered reftel demarches on February 20 to Enrique Mora, Director of the MFA's Office of EU Foreign Policy and Common Security. ¶2. (C) Regarding reftel A topics, Mora stated that the discussion on Afghanistan will include the EU's concern that the references to Islam in the Afghan constitution are "dangerous in the medium-term". On funding, he said that there were no plans for the GOS to increase its current financial commitments in Afghanistan. Mora added that he did not know of any interest to renegotiate the Bonn Accord, and that the topic was not on the agenda. ¶3. (C) Mora said the group would hear reports from Javier Solana on Pakistan-India and on SFOR operations in the Balkans. While he said that economic assistance to Pakistan was not on the agenda, Mora stated that it was Spain's opinion that Pakistan was a state that needed meet its nonproliferation responsibilities before aid could increase. ¶4. (C) On reftel B themes, Mora stated that he thought discussions would center on reasserting the EU's previous positions towards Russia regarding the accession of the new EU member states in May. He said that Russia has been pressing the EU to have some of the new member states continue to honor preferential bilateral trade deals with Russia, even if they violate existing EU laws and treaties. Mora said that this was a non-starter with EU members, and that he expected them to forcefully reiterate this point. While he said that Spain shares USG concerns on democracy in Russia, he did not know if the theme would be addressed at this meeting. MANZANARES