The situation, in fact, has worsened for the Cuban people on the island since the“ thaw” of the Cuba-US relations was announced. The level of repression used on a daily basis against the members of the awakening Cuban civil society has actually increased. 1 Raul Castro may be advancing some rational reforms in order to address the basic problems of the Cuban people struggling day after day for their subsistence, and to adjust the Cuban economy to the challenges of the international system emerging in the beginning of the 21 st century. It doesn’ t mean, however, at all that he is ready to get rid of the“ substance” of the Cuban“ socialism” being“ actualized” now; that he has changed his mind and ceased to be an“ unrepentant” communist. He has never made even the smallest effort to extend his economic reform agenda into the political sphere. His principal goal is still what it has always been: to preserve the leading role of the Communist party using all available means at his disposal and oversee a smooth succession of power from the aging Moncadistas 2- still its principal current holders- to the“ politically conscious” members of younger generations. 2. Normalization of the EU-Cuba relations In February 2014, the Council of European Union Foreign Ministers agreed to start negotiations on a new bilateral agreement between the EU and Cuba. A diplomatic process got off the ground two months later. A declared common intention is to overcome the unproductive and outdated legacies of the past; to adopt a new treaty which should govern the full scope of relations between the EU and Cuba( the political dialogue, cooperation, economic relations and trade) in a single agreement. It should be a standard legal instrument, similar to the treaties regulating the relations of the EU with other states of the ACP( African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group, all of which, unlike Cuba, are signatories of the“ Cotonou Agreement” 3. As far as the character of normalized” EU-Cuba relationships regulated by a new treaty is concerned, there is a profound difference between the expectations of the two“ high contracting parties.” For the EU, the normalization of this relationship requires Cuba to finally start behaving like a“ normal” ACP country; to open up its political and economic system and set itself on the way of national reconciliation: democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and economic prosperity. It implies that all general guidelines the EU has discussed internally and adopted for the various spheres of international cooperation with all other partners from the developing world( such as the“ Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy,” adopted on 25 June 2012, for instance) are fully applicable. The revolutionary“ exceptionalism”- still aggressively defended by the Cuban Government- is not to be tolerated anymore. It must be replaced unconditionally by the cooperation“ in good faith”, based on the joint recognition of all basic purposes and principles of international cooperation as stipulated by the Charter of the
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