E.U. commish wants to drop Cuba sanctions

The top development aid official for the European Union (EU) has advocated that EU sanctions against Cuba should be dropped. During a visit to Cuba over the weekend, EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said that the elimination of sanctions that were imposed in 2003 would allow for political talks between the EU and the Cuban government:

…Michel and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the two sides would work to remove all European sanctions on Cuba in order to pave the way for normalizing ties.

The statement called the 2003 sanctions - imposed after Cuba imprisoned 75 dissidents two years earlier - the 'principal obstacle' to creating a political dialogue and said they should be 'eliminated definitively.'

While Michel called for removing sanctions with Cuba, the U.S. government has criticized such an approach. For instance, president George W. Bush said on Friday that the normalizing of relations with Cuba is “exactly backward.”

Sources- Reuters, Monsters & Critics, AFP

Image- Washington Post (“People line up to buy eggs in a state-run store in Havana last month.")