EU May Revise Cuba Relations, Says Barroso

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday the bloc may revise its relations with Cuba after a decade of friction over the communist island's human rights record.

The European Union suspended relations with Cuba in 2003 after the Cuban authorities threw 75 dissidents into jail, all of whom have since been released.

Dialogue with the EU resumed in 2008, leading to various bilateral agreements with 15 EU states, but normal diplomatic relations have yet to be established.

European diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse Thursday that the EU was now preparing to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Barroso confirmed this change.

He noted that the EU has a common position on its relations with Cuba. The 1996 policy conditions EU diplomatic relations with Cuba on the island's democratic and human rights record.

"It is true we are analyzing internally the possibility of revising that position. But for that we need unanimity," Barroso told a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid.

"It is important that Cuba respects human rights, that it does not have political prisoners. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are very important," Barroso added.

"Anything positive that can be done in Cuba to open the country to democratic values will certainly be positive."

The EU manoeuvres come a month after U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raoul Castro shared a handshake in South Africa at a memorial ceremony for the late Nelson Mandela.

The United States and Cuba have not had full diplomatic relations since 1961.