New EU policy toward Cuba?

Havana-based BBC correspondent Fernando Ravsberg interviewed the new EU representative in Cuba Herman Portocarrero, who says that the EU is prepared to negotiate a new framework for its relations with Havana over the next two years.  That includes six months to prepare the negotiation and up to 18 to carry it out, allowing enough time to bring along every EU member in a unanimous decision, which is necessary to end the Common Policy.

The interview is written up here and here.

The idea is to replace the unilateral Common Position with an agreement that provides for cooperation in “food security and support for economic modernization, taxation, cooperatives, and micro-credits.”

Portocarrero noted “the freedom of expression that exists in the economic sphere because the first step is always to open space for debate and our hope is that other intellectual spaces open up for debate about social matters.”