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EU called to lift sanctions against Cuba

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-20 09:06

BRUSSELS  -- The European Union should come up with a decision on Thursday to lift sanctions against Cuba, an EU high-level official said here on Thursday.

"Yes, I think (they) should be scrapped," External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said when asked whether EU foreign ministers would agree to scrap the sanctions.

EU foreign ministers are also meeting here on Thursday, when an EU summit is going on.

"We want to see progress ... and many other things," added the commissioner.

The EU imposed sanctions in 2003 against Cuba, freezing visits by high-level officials, but it suspended the measures in 2005.

To lift the sanctions would require all EU members to agree, but the 27-nation bloc remains divided over such a move as the United States opposes it.

"We think the moment has now come to definitely lift the sanctions," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters, saying the EU was working on agreement to end the sanctions on Thursday.

"We are moving forward, with quite strong possibilities, to reach a final compromise on relations between the EU and Cuba," he added.

Nations such as the Czech Republic and Sweden objected to the move.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said EU discussions on the move were far closer to acceptable conditions.

"We are going to have some fairly tough demands on the Cubans," he added.