EU official says progress made on cooperation, trade issues in talks with Cuba

A European External Action Service senior official said here Wednesday that the freshly-concluded talks between the EU and Cuba saw progress on cooperation, trade and economy areas, while less progress were made on political issues.

The senior official, who requested anonymity, told reporters that the EU and Cuba "have near completed the agreement on the trade and economic issues" in the fourth round of EU-Cuba framework agreement talks.

He said the two sides "have very broad agreement on the cooperation chapter," and had a much better understanding on their respective objectives, ambitions and sensitivities in the political dialogue chapter.

The two-day talks, which started on Monday in Brussels, aim to address the fact that Cuba is one of the few countries that do not have a bilateral agreement with the EU.

In February 2014, the EU adopted negotiating directives for a bilateral EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement to consolidate existing bilateral relations in the areas of political dialogue, cooperation and trade.

The talks started in April 2014 in Havana. They were followed up during a second round in Brussels in August 2014 and a third round in Havana in March 2015. And the freshly-concluded talks were the fourth round of such kind.

The EU is Cuba's second most important trading partner, accounting for 22 percent of total Cuban trade. Endit