EU formally renews ties with Cuba (BBC)

[Nambe]

Source: BBC

The EU and Cuba have formally restored ties, five years after the EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on the island following mass arrests of dissidents.

European Commissioner Louis Michel said the accord he signed with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was "a turning point for EU-Cuban relations".

Mr Perez Roque welcomed its respect for the island's political independence.

It will now receive 2m euros ($2.6m) of emergency hurricane recovery aid, with 30m euros ($38.9m) available next year. ...

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/7685855.stm

[Joanne98]

1. YAY

[Gillian]

2. That kind of money will go a long ways in Cuba.

We are going back next month with Cuban friends. It is always fun. Cuban people are so happy.

[ensho]

3. good!

sensible

[dipsydoodle]

4. The thorn in this

will be the USA with regard to banks and companies with interests in both the USA and Europe.

edit - back to the plot. The USA already threated that they would deal harshly with such companies which now trade with Cuba following the EU agreement

[Phred42]

5. Good - The old guard Cuban Lobby can take a flying leap

[DFW]

6. The embargo on Cuba is SUCH an anachronism!!!

We have relations with Saudi Arabia, Syria, Venezuela, any number of states where
the people, the leadership, or both is/are not exactly friendly toward us. We have
had no real quarrel with Cuba since the fall of the original Sandinista regime in
Nicaragua, and that was something like 20 years ago. If we can kiss and make up with
Vietnam, then doing so with Cuba is LONG overdue (besides, their salsa music is way
cooler than Viet pop).

I've been to Cuba in the days when Fidel was in full control of things, speak fluent
Spanish, and can tell you that we Yanquis are received there with warm friendship as
much as anyone (with the possible exception of right-wing Cuban exiles in Miami). If
anything, if I were a Cuban official, I'd be wary about opening things up too much so
as to avoid Cuba being as overbuilt and polluted as Mallorca has become since it discovered
tourism and Germans.

But to continue this ridiculous embargo against Cuba is to continue probably the last
vestige of Cold War mentality in the Western Hemisphere since Che was shot. The Cubans
have been willing to move on for decades, now. It's time we caught up with them.

[Bette Noir]

7. The sanctions against Cuba are completely irrational.

I'd be quite pleased if we dropped them ourselves.

Note to right-wingers: the way to spread democracy and freedom is to give those we want to influence a taste of their benefits, not to bomb them into submission. What better way to make Cubans want to be like us, than to send over thousands of free-spending American vacationers?

[Karenina]

8. And the walls come a-tumblin down!