Ακολουθεί
το κείμενο (αγγλικά) και οι συνυπογράφουσες
οργανώσεις:
Dear
President Donald Tusk,
dear President Miroslav Lajčák,
dear President Miroslav Lajčák,
We
are a group of organisations based in Europe working to develop
friendship and solidarity between Cuba and our respective countries
as well as with the European Union itself.
The
last two years has seen a significant change in the attitude of the
United States Administration towards Cuba which included the
reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and
the visit of President Obama to Cuba in March 2016.
Nevertheless there are major issues to be resolved before it could be
said that normal relations between the United States of America and
Cuba exist.
There
have been visits to Cuba by a number of leading European political
figures and in turn there have been visits by leading Cuban political
personalities to Europe. The European Union has the right and the
capacity to play an independent role in encouraging the practical
implementation of the resolution adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in October 2015 (ending the extraterritorial
US-blockade against Cuba) and in hastening further improvements in
US-Cuba relations.
These
developments have marked a move away from the attitudes towards Cuba
which have been evident in the past in the behaviour of various
political leaders and the Presidents of the United States.
These changes are the consequence of the longstanding isolation of
the USA on this issue. This has been acknowledged by President Obama
and reflected in the overwhelming votes at successive United Nations
General Assemblies against the US blockade of Cuba. The most recent
191-2 vote against the blockade, in October 2015, saw the UN General
Assembly acknowledge that the US policy had been a complete failure
and was seen as such by the overwhelming majority of member
countries.
Progress
has been made in the relationships between the EU and Cuba through
the signing of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement in
March 2016. We hope that this will mark the end of the
unjustifiable and unfair policies expressed in the unilaterally
adopted EU Common Position.
Critical
to the development of better relations must be a clear and
unequivocal stance by the European Union against the retention by the
USA of any aspects of the punitive and indefensible policies embodied
in the anti Cuban Blockade legislation. This should include a clear
statement informing the US Administration of the EUs intentions to
support the rights of the member states to trade with Cuba without
the threat of fines being imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC). Further, we believe that the EU should endorse the
right to trade with Cuba and the refusal of any EU companies to pay
any fines which OFAC might seek to impose on them for trading with
Cuba. All this action would help to implement “Council
Regulation (EC) No 2271/96 of 22 November 1996”.1
We
note that throughout Europe problems have arisen as a result of
companies trading with Cuba including the fines imposed in 2015 on a
number of major European banks and the fining in January 2016 of the
British based company Wimberley Allison Tong and Goo (UK) Limited a
subsidiary of WATG of Irvine, California. The Enforcement Information
for January 20, 2016 specifically says that they were fined because
“the apparent violations caused significant harm to Cuba sanctions
programme”.
The
British based Cooperative Bank closed the accounts of the Cuba
Solidarity Campaign. Mr Niall Booker, Chief Executive of the
Bank, stated publicly that they had closed the accounts, “because
they feared reprisals by the United States Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC).” In Denmark the company PayPal similarly interfered
with and blocked the account of the Danish-Cuban Association.
Unfortunately, there are many more examples for extraterritorial
effects of the US-blockade on EU-members and citizens, even against
civil society organisations. All these actions and more have
been justified by invoking the threat of fines from OFAC. Such
extraterritorial actions affect the rights of European companies and
bodies to act within EU laws without the real threat of being fined
by OFAC.
We
also believe that the EU should go further and should recognise the
independence and sovereignty of Cuba by declaring its full support
for the complete and unconditional withdrawal by the United States of
America from its illegal occupation of Guantanamo Bay and its full
restoration of the land to Cuba.
It
is our view that the European Union has an important role to play in
developing relationships with Cuba based on mutual respect and
understanding between sovereign nations.
Sincerely
yours,
The
undersigned:
- AUSTRIA: Prof. Albrecht Konecny (President), Österreichisch-Kubanische Gesellschaft and Prof. Alfred Kohlbacher (President of the Board of Trustees)
- BELGIUM: Alexandra Dirckx, Voorzitter Vrienden van Cuba and President Amis de Cuba; and Isabelle Vanbrabant (President), Iniciativa Cuba Socialista – Belgium
- BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Sead Halilovic (President), Association of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian-Cuban Friendship
- CZECH REPUBLIC: Ludvik Sulda (President), Czech-Cuban Friendship Society
- DENMARK: Sven-Erik Simonsen (President), Association Denmark – Cuba
- FRANCE: Jacques Milhas, Pour Cuba Si France
- GERMANY: Harri Grünberg (President), Netzwerk Cuba e.V. (42 member groups); and Alexander-von-Humboldt-Gesellschaft e.V.
- GREECE: Nikos Karandreas (President) Greek Cuban Friendship and Solidarity Association; Despina Markou (President) Greek Committee for International Democratic Solidarity;Natasha Terlexi, "Jose Marti" Cultural Association, Greece
- ITALIA: Sergio Marinoni (President), Associazione Nazionale di Amicizia Italia-Cuba
- IRELAND: Simon McGuinness (National Coordinator), Cuba Support Group
- LUXEMBURG: Joël Wunsch (President), Amistad Luxemburgo-Cuba
- MALTA: Michael Camilleri (President) and Dr. Patrick Tanti (Secretary) Malta Cuba Society
- NORWAY: Mayo Bustos (President), Cubaforeningen
- PORTUGAL: Augusto Fidalgo, Associcao Portugal-Cuba
- ROMANIA: Vasile Orleanu (President) Fundatia AVANGARDA; and Prof. Gheorghe Ungureanu (President) Association ”Fidel Castro”
- SERBIA: Prof. Ljiljana Bogoeva Sedlar (President) Serbian-Cuban Association
- SLOVENIA: Igor JURIŠIČ (President) Slovene - Cuban friendship association
- SPAIN: Paco Calderon, SODEPAZ and Coordinadora Estatal de Solidaridad con Cuba – Madrid
- SWEDEN: Martin Österlin (President), Swedish-Cuban Association
- TURKEY: M. Onur Çuvalci, Cuba-Turkey Friendship Association "José Martí"
- UNITED KINGDOM: Rob Miller (Director) and Bernard Regan (Secretary) Cuba Solidarity Campaign
1
Council
Regulation (EC) No 2271/96 of 22 November 1996 protecting against
the effects of the extra-territorial application of legislation
adopted by a third country, and actions based thereon or resulting
therefrom (Official
Journal L 309 , 29/11/1996 P. 0001 – 0006),
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31996R2271:EN:HTML