BRUSSELS – Last Friday, the European Commission (EC) stated that the European Union (EU) would not be sponsoring the Cuban resolution before the Human Rights Commission in Geneva concerning the situation at the Guantánamo naval base.

At a press conference, Kristina Nagy, spokesperson for the European institution, stated in response to a question from Notimex, that "the European Union does not intend" to sponsor the said resolution, nor does it intend to do so in the future.

On Thursday, April 14, the EU co-sponsored a US resolution against Cuba in Geneva.

In that context, the day before Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque had referred to the European Union decision to support the US resolution against Cuba as "hypocritical" and "pathetic."

The situation between the EU and Cuba is once again tense, after a certain rapprochement between the two sides with an agreement to resume a political dialogue.

Political dialogue between Cuba and the European Union was frozen in the wake of the prison terms handed down to 75 Cubans who were engaging in activities against their own country under US instructions during 2003. The EU condemned the measure and imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba in June 2003.

In January 2005 the European Union decided to temporarily lift the diplomatic sanctions imposed on Cuba, but under pressure from Czechoslovakia – in its turn acting on behalf of the U.S. – has confirmed that it is to reconsider them in July.

In response, Foreign Minister Pérez Roque has made the Cuban conditional on the position that the EU takes in July.

At the same time an EFE cable reports that Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spanish minister of foreign affairs, has defended Europe’s support for the resolution condemning Cuba brought before the UN Human Rights Commission.

In a press conference after meeting with Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, Moratinos spoke out in favor of "continuing to work with the Cuban authorities" and evaded any direct response to the Cuban foreign minister’s criticisms on EU support for the US resolution it cosponsored.