Study day on Cuba

Intervention by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski
Vice-President of the European Parliament
Head of the Polish National Delegation in the EPP-ED Group
Speech during the Study Day on the situation in Cuba


Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends,

I would like to say a few words as a person who grew up, and spent most of his adult life in a Communist State. The Cuban reality of today was our experience of yesterday, the jails, the violation of human rights, the lack of freedom of expression, and other forms of repression, that is our Deja vu. But there exists a knowledge of how to deal with it. Our freedom of today is a sign of hope for Cuba of tomorrow.

There are four messages that I would like to convey, the first is one of solidarity.

I. SOLIDARITY:

For Poland and the other Member States from Central and Eastern Europe we have a special sensitivity to the violation of human rights, the violation of the freedom of expression and that of the press, and the lack of democracy in a country, due to our almost 50 years experience of Communist rule.

This sensitivity leads us to look at what is happening in a country like Cuba in parallel to what is happening in Belarus, which is Poland's immediate neighbour. To us there is no difference between the Lukashenko regime and Castro's Cuba, and our response to both is similar. This attitude is based on the fundamental values of the European Union - democracy and human rights.

This Solidarity with the Cuban people explains why Polish MEP's tried to go to meet the democratic opposition and dissidents in Havana, why Polish journalists get arrested in Cuba, or why a Czech Senator gets expelled. We instinctively understand what they are living through and it is our duty to try and help them. This means solidarity with the democratic opposition - both in Cuba, as in Belarus. This means joining forces with those who help to opposed dictatorships, be it in Cuba or in Belarus.

II. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE:

My second point is that change is possible. For that to happen we have to pay more attention to Cuba, and to forge links with the Cuban people. We have to have a firm discussion with the Castro regime, telling them plainly that certain behaviours will never be tolerated by the European Union. This aim could be achieved by a two-fold policy: to help the democratic opposition while at the same time having a tough stance versus the government.

The experiences of the Polish round table in which the opposition negotiated the transfer of power with the Communist regime was seen as a fantasy only months before it happened. Remember that Poland had at the time Soviet troops stationed on its territory, it was in the Warsaw Pact, and its neighbours were demanding armed intervention, yet the Communist system and the so-called "Berlin Wall" first crumbled in Poland.

Change is possible, but the European Union to be effective has to speak with one voice on countries like Cuba, or Belarus. The experience of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine this past December shows how European intervention at a critical moment can achieve a peaceful transition.

III. INVEST IN THE CUBAN PEOPLE:

My third point is that we have to invest in the Cuban people. We have to remember that Castro has been in power since 1959. He runs an anachronistic regime from the Cold War era which should have died a natural death at the same time as the Soviet Union was dissolved. It may be a Communist State but it is not a Communist society, and Cuba will become a normal state once Castro is gone. As it happened in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe 16 years ago.

This is why we need to engage Cuban civil society and to forge contacts with the Cuban opposition. We need to start thinking now of how best to help Cuba once the regime has collapsed, which inevitably it will. We have to also draw on the experiences of people who worked for democratisation in the old Soviet Block, and use the same mechanisms to promote change.

Our embassies need to build up contacts with the opposition, and engage in a dialogue with them, while at the same time put pressure on the Castro regime. We can never accept that some 70 prisoners of conscience are still being held in prisons, that there is no freedom of the press, and that a person can be jailed for up to 20 years for simply talking to foreign correspondents.

IV. FUNDAMENTAL VALUES:

My fourth and last point is that our strength, but also our obligation, lies in applying and promoting the same fundamental values of democracy and human rights which are the cornerstone of the European Union, applying them everywhere, be it in Cuba, or Belarus, or in any other country.

I would like to end with a line from Lech Walesa's letter to the conference this morning, "we have to believe that in no part of the world in the era of globalisation can the communist system have a right to exist". Castro's Communist Cuba will become a historical footnote, in the same way as the Soviet Union has, but we need to be prepared for that, and we have a moral and political obligation to help the Cuban people achieve that.

The European Parliament, as in the case of Ukraine, has the potential to articulate the cause of democracy and human rights louder, and earlier, than other EU institutions. It has the potential to be at the forefront and thus strengthen the wind of democratic change.

Thank you for your attention.