Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Ireland's position on the United States trade embargo of Cuba is long standing and well known. Ireland and other EU member states support an annual draft resolution at the UN General Assembly introduced by Cuba rejecting the extra-territoriall effects of the US embargo.

We and our EU partners are not persuaded that the continued US embargo on Cuba is contributing in a positive way to the democratic transition in Cuba; this position has been expressed on many occasions in contacts with the United States. I am aware that opinions in the US on this issue are divided. Cuba remains an important domestic political issue in the United States, involving the views of many displaced Cubans who have taken refuge there. However, this is an issue which will have to be worked out within the United States itself, and not on this side of the Atlantic.

With the release this year of all 75 political prisoners incarcerated in 2003, the possibility for a new phase in Europe's relationship with Cuba has been opened up. EU-Cuba co-operation in a number of fields such as food security, climate change and the environment have been resumed, a political dialogue with an emphasis on human rights has been instituted, and we are currently examining how the EU might deepen the bilateral relationship further. The outcome of the recent congress of the Cuban Communist Party suggests that considerable reforms are being considered within Cuba, which will open up possibilities for further co-operation between Europe and Cuba.

Independent of any development in the relationship between the United States and Cuba, the European Union and Ireland will continue to bilaterally develop our own contacts with Cuba in accordance with our own criteria, with a particular emphasis on social and economic development and human rights.

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