Last month, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced that the EU and Cuba had agreed to accelerate talks on establishing a cooperation agreement to normalize ties, which would hopefully be signed by the end of the year. Mogherini was in Havana for the third round of talks between the EU and Cuba since negotiations started up again in April 2014.
The EU has tried several times in the past to negotiate a cooperation agreement with Cuba, first in 1995 and again in 2000, but talks have always failed. On the Cuban side, one of the biggest factors preventing a deal has been the EU’s so-called Common Position. Adopted in 1996, the Common Position outlines the objectives of the EU’s Cuba policy, namely the transition to a pluralist democracy with respect for human rights in exchange for increased economic cooperation. Under then-President Fidel Castro, Cuba strongly condemned the policy and relations were frozen.
However, “there is growing dissention among member states about the Common Position,” explains William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University and an expert on Cuba. In Europe, there is an emerging consensus that the Common Position isn’t working, and several EU member states have already pursued bilateral relations with Cuba.