The European Union's policy on Cuba, conditioning trade and aid on gradual democratization on the island, does not mirror the United States' ``coercive policy'' toward Cuba, Carlos Robles Piquer, a leader of Spain's Popular Party and vice president of the European Parliament, said Tuesday.
``There is an ultimate convergence of both policies in the pursuit of democracy and prosperity [for Cuba], but the methods are very different,'' Robles said during a stopover in Miami while flying from Puerto Rico to Madrid.
The 15-member EU is firmly opposed to the Helms-Burton Act ``because we believe that the [U.S. trade] embargo is more of a miss than a hit,'' he said, but ``we also believe that things in Cuba cannot continue as they are and that [President Fidel] Castro must abide by the decision of the ballot box in a pluralistic political process.''
The EU's new policy, adopted Monday in Brussels, will utilize ``political and diplomatic pressures'' to achieve its purpose, the official said. And while economic pressures will be part of the strategy, ``no one [in the EU] is going to impose more sanctions on Fidel Castro's regime.''
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