WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Alan Donnelly, Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the Parliament's Delegation to the US Congress, today made an appeal to the Congress for a transatlantic conference to discuss a new policy on Cuba in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We have to think of what we will be doing in the post-Castro period. We would like more dialogue between Europe and the United States in this transition from dictatorships to democracies. Europe has much experience from helping to promote the political and economic reforms first in Southern Europe and now in Central and Eastern Europe", noted Mr. Donnelly.
"With regard to US policy toward Cuba, we continue to reject extraterritorial economic sanctions, but we must also agree to disagree. We must recognize the fact that we have different approaches to economic sanctions. But on the other hand, we, like the United States, agree that Cuba should hold free and democratic elections; insist on the political legalization without exclusion of any political parties; encourage the reform of internal legislation concerning political and civil rights, including the Cuban criminal code, and, consequently, the abolition of all political offenses, the release of all political prisoners, and the ending of the harassment and punishment of dissidents."
"If there is a positive Congressional reaction, then I would suggest that this new initiative take place in the first half of 1998 which will involve the US Congress and European parliamentarians to launch this endeavor," said Mr. Donnelly as he begins a speaking tour in the United States.
SOURCE European Commission
10/24/97 13:06 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com