European Commission and Cuba Expand Cooperation

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 19 (acn) The European Commission (EC) and Cuba expanded their links for cooperation and perspectives of working together, with the inauguration on Thursday in Havana of a meeting on bilateral cooperation.

During the opening of the event at the Meliá Habana Hotel, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, ratified the willingness of continuing these ties with the EC, on the basis of respect and without conditions.

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis ichel, pointed out that the important advances of the Caribbean archipelago in various spheres make it possible to strengthen this dialogue, i.e. education, health, the training of human resources, and the environment.

The vice-president of the European Parliament (EP) Miguel Ángel Martínez, rejected the policy of sanctions and the attempts to condition the dialogue and cooperation of the European Union with the archipelago. He criticized the anti-Cuban Common Position of interference of the mega-
bloc, which the friendship-with-Cuba group he presides over will fight to eliminate.

For two days, the conference will examine themes like food security, economic cooperation and trade, research and development, regional programs in Latin America, and the environment.

Moreover, it will centre its attention in renewable energy, climate change, disaster risk reduction and social sectors.

Also on Thursday, attention was drawn to the perspectives of advancing in regional economic integration that have opened up for Cuba with the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA) and other options to boost ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Cuba has over 51,000 voluntary workers in more than 100 countries, as well as some 30,000 foreign scholarship students in educational centres in the archipelago -a clear commitment in the struggle against underdevelopment.


(Comisión Europea y Cuba amplían vínculos de cooperación)