Spain to press EU-Cuba ties despite rejection of Euro-MP

(MADRID) - Spain said Tuesday that Havana's decision to deny entry to a Spanish member of the European parliament would not affect Madrid's push for a new agreement on EU-Cuba ties during its EU presidency.

The Cuban ambassador to Spain, Alejandro Gonzalez Galiano, was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain Havana's "unjustified" refusal to allow eurodeputy Luis Yaneza to enter the communist island at the weekend.

Secretary of State for Latin America Juan Pablo De Laiglesia warned him that the incident "will not help the development of bilateral relations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Galiano's only response was that Yanez was denied entry "due to the application of Cuban domestic laws."

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the incident was "not good news. I think the Cubans were wrong."

Yanez "is not someone who is appreciated by the Cuban regime, towards which he has had taken some critical positions. But to go from that to expelling him...," he told a news conference.

But the minister emphasised that the incident would not threaten Spain's determination to convince its European partners to soften the EU's position toward Cuba.

"A chapter of dialogue has opened with Cuba. That it goes through highs and lows is normal in a period of transition," Moratinos said.

"Isolation, confrontation, the embargo and the blockade" on the Cuban regime "has produced no result in 50 years."

Madrid on Friday launched its six-month stint at the helm of the European Union seeking a new bilateral agreement on EU-Cuba ties despite objections from its two immediate predecessors -- Sweden and the Czech Republic -- and Cuban human rights groups.

It wants to see an end to the EU's Common Position on Cuba, adopted in 1996, which calls for progress on human rights and democracy before normalising relations.

"What is important is that we can help this reform process in Cuba move forward," said Moratinos.

"If an agreement is possible, very good. If there is no European consensus, Spain will continue to work in a bilateral framework" with Havana.

Yanez, 66, is head of the European Parliament's committee on relations with the South American trade bloc Mercosur.

A source at Spain's ruling Socialist Party said he had travelled to Cuba in a small plane on Sunday accompanied by his wife, Spanish legislator Carmen Hermosin, who was given permission to enter the country. Both returned to Spain on Monday.