Spain will not 'force' new EU relation with Cuba

Madrid - Spain will upgrade the European Union's relations with Cuba only if such a "consensus" is reached during Madrid's EU presidency in the first half of 2010, a senior official said Tuesday. Some EU countries are critical of Spain's plans to modify the union's 1996 common position on Cuba, which links relations to human rights and freedoms on the Caribbean island.

"Nothing will be done without the consensus of the 27" EU member countries, Spain's Ibero-America Secretary of State Juan Pablo de Laiglesia told a senate Ibero-American affairs committee.

However, he attributed the reservations of some countries partly to their lack of knowledge about the changes that had occurred in Cuba since 1996.

Cuba could not be an exception to Spain's plans of improving EU relations with all of Latin America, the secretary of state said.