SPANISH RESPONSE TO EU BURMA POLICY DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000730 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2014 TAGS: PREL PGOV BM SP EUN SUBJECT: SPANISH RESPONSE TO EU BURMA POLICY DEMARCHE REF: STATE 42342 Classified By: Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Political Counselor, for Reasons 1 .4 (b) and (d) (C) We delivered reftel demarche on March 3 to Enrique Mora, Director of the MFA's Office of EU Foreign Policy and Common Security. Mora stated that the EU sanctions on Burma proposed by the Irish presidency this year are almost identical to last year's sanctions, but that the proposal has not been finalized and it is possible that additional sanctions could be included. He said that Spain and the EU, in agreement with the USG position, oppose having Burma host ASEAN events. Regarding humanitarian assistance, Mora said he did not know of any proposals to increase EU humanitarian assistance from its current level. He stated that current humanitarian aid funding passes directly from the European Commission to NGOs in Burma, with no funding going to the Burmese government. ARGYROS