06-04-2022

III International Seminar " Europe-Cuba Forum Jean Monnet Network"

In this third international seminar of the project to be held on April 6, 7 and 8 in Barcelona, European and Cuban academics, members of the Europe-Cuba Forum Jean Monnet Network, will discuss the results of the three thematic blocs in which the Forum's research has been developed.

The main focus will be the relationship between Cuba and the European Union (EU), which still is conditioned by asymmetries, the different nature of political and economic systems, the costly strategic calculation imposed by the US policy against Cuba, as well as by the constraints resulting from the global crisis, now aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and international conflicts. The sui generis model of regional and international insertion of Cuba as a socialist country and the one of the European Union itself as a process of integration under construction, represent another particularity of a relationship that has developed gradually, from its formalization in 1988 to the signing of a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement in 2016. The latter made possible to broaden and deepen cooperation together with the political, social and economic relations between the two parties. To date, the island has implemented several reforms with the aim of enhancing its international integration, within a framework of effectiveness and in keeping with its national interests.

During the seminar, European and Cuban academics, members of the Europe Cuba Forum Jean Monnet Network, will provide an interesting analysis of the factors that hinder or enhance Cuba’s insertion into the current international political scene and the EU’s constructive support to this process, which is taking place within the framework of renewed bilateral, interregional and global cooperation.

On the first day, the seminar will open with a public presentation of the Forum's third book "Cuba and the European Union: Interregional Cooperation and Global Insertion", followed by the discussion of three policy briefs focused on the following topics: a) economic reforms and sustainable development, b) social policies and institutional reforms and c) interregional cooperation and global insertion.

In the following days, the experts of the Network will address, through a series of working seminars, the current situation of cooperation between the EU and Cuba from the three aforementioned topics.

This seminar is part of the Europe Cuba Forum Jean Monnet Network project, co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission, an initiative born in 2018 and composed of a consortium of eleven leading institutions that share a consolidated experience in research on Cuban affairs and the relations between Europe and Cuba.

The creation of the Jean Monnet Network Europe-Cuba Forum aims to analyze the economic, political, social and institutional reform processes underway on the island necessary for its better global, regional and interregional insertion. The network thus intends to contribute to energize the new stage of constructive engagement in the relations between Cuba and the European Union (EU) after the signing of the ADPC from an academic perspective, but also with proposals for action.

View the seminar’s opening session