Cuba – EU: the difficult way to cooperation

The article explores the development of relations between Cuba and the European countries during the postsoviet period. Having lost the access to the markets of the USSR and the European socialist countries, Cuba objectively was interested in finding new partners both for the replacement of the sources of industrial goods delivery and for exporting its own products. European countries seemed to be an adequate substitution of Russia (except petroleum products delivery). The article highlights how the economic interests of the EU to enter the capacious Cuban market contradicted principals of democracy and human rights. That was the reason for freezing periodically the progress in the economic links. The main obstacle for the bilateral economic cooperation was the EU Common Position, approved in 1996. The cancellation of the EU Common Position, together with developing of bilateral relations of individual countries enables the EU to become a strategic economic partner of Сuba. The analysis of the bilateral partnership provides better understanding how Cuban leaders act on the international scene.