EU COMMON POSITION ON CUBA: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

UNCLAS VIENNA 000101

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FRO WHA/CCA , EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL CU AU EUN
SUBJECT: EU COMMON POSITION ON CUBA: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

REF: SECSTATE 233497

This message is sensitive but unclassified.


1. (SBU) Embassy conveyed reftel points to Austrian MFA
DAS-equivalent for Latin American Kornelia Weihs on January

10. Pol Unit Chief followed up with Weihs (who had just
returned from the COLAT EU working group meeting in Brussels)
on January 12. Weihs told us that the Luxembourg Presidency
had also distributed the U.S. non-paper on the Common
Position on Cuba at the COLAT meeting, but that the paper had
arrived too late for member state reps to consider it.


2. (SBU) Weihs explained that although the December General
Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) had taken a
decision in principle to suspend some of the measures against
Cuba, the modalities of this were still to be worked out.
After the COLAT, the PSC, COREPER, and finally, the January
31 GAERC would take final action on implementation.


3. (SBU) Weihs told us that the Cuban government's freeze on
contacts with EU member state Embassies and the EU Commission
representation in Havana had led to an unproductive
stalemate. EU Member states had therefore settled on a
suspension of the EU agreed measures until the end of June
2005 in an attempt to re-start a dialogue with the Cuban
regime and bring some movement into a stagnant situation.
The Cuban government then abandoned its divide-and-conquer
tactics on January 3 by agreeing to renew diplomatic contacts
with all the EU member state missions and the Commission.


4. (SBU) However, the release (into house arrest) of 14
gravely ill detainees had impressed none of the member
states, Weihs said. All were convinced that the regime's
sole motivation was to avoid having any of the dissidents die
in detention. The EU was still seeking consensus on how to
proceed in order to help bring about an improvement in the
status of the detainees and, generally, to promote democracy
and human rights in Cuba. It was up to the Luxembourg
presidency to propose a common approach at the February 8
COLAT, when the U.S. paper would also be on the agenda.
Brown