US embassy cable - 04MADRID1763

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 001763 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2014 
TAGS: PREL, SP, EUN, European Union 
SUBJECT: SPANISH RESPONSE TO MAY 17-18 EU FMS MEETING 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: STATE 104199 
 
Classified By: Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Political Counselor, for Reasons 1 
.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) We delivered reftel demarche on May 14 to Enrique 
Mora, Director of the MFA's Office of EU Foreign Policy and 
Common Security.  Mora said that the new Spanish government 
would maintain Spain's previous policies on the issues being 
discussed at the next EU General Affairs and External 
Relations Council meeting.  On ESDP issues, he said that the 
GOS would continue to support the idea that European defense 
policy should complement and reinforce NATO, and not become 
an alternative to NATO.  Mora said he did not see anything in 
the Headline Goal for 2010 or the Battlegroups proposal that 
was inconsistent with NATO.  He stated that the only proposal 
that may be of concern was the idea for a separate European 
tactical planning unit in Belgium. 
 
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Western Balkans 
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2. (C) Regarding Croatia, Mora said that he agreed that 
Croatia was not making sufficient progress on the issues of 
detaining Gotovina and providing for the return of refugees. 
He said that these issues would be taken up at the next EU 
meeting, in June.  As far as continued negotiations on entry 
into the EU, Mora said that the EU does consider Croatia to 
be a functioning democracy and a functioning market economy, 
which are the two criteria necessary for discussions to 
proceed.  Depending on the June discussion on how to handle 
Croatian shortcomings, Mora said he saw a high-probability 
that Croatia would be included in entry negotiations along 
with Romania and Bulgaria. 
 
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European Neighborhood Policy and Russia 
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3. (C) Regarding the EU's periphery, Mora said that the 
European Neighborhood Policy document would not be discussed 
at this next meeting, but that it would be on the June 
agenda.  Spain's most notable request on this matter will be 
in requesting that Morocco and Algeria be included in the 
policy.  Mora said that the EU continues to work on getting 
the Russians to live up to their troop withdrawal commitments 
in Georgia and Moldova, but that he saw the Russians holding 
out for financial reasons. 
 
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EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit 
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4. (C) Mora said he did not know of any new EU projects or 
funding that would be on the table at the next EU-Latin 
America and Caribbean Summit.  He added that he didn't 
believe that any progress could be made on EU-Mercosur 
negotiations until there was a commitment to restart the Doha 
Round discussions. 
 
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Cyprus and Turkey 
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5. (C) On Cyprus and Turkey, Mora said that the EU had acted 
on April 29 to begin ending the isolation of the Turkish 
Cypriot community, and that the only discussions at next 
week's meetings would be some talks on how to certify the 
direct entry of Turkish Cypriot products into the EU.  On 
Turkey, he said that Spain also looked favorably on the 
reforms passed by the Turkish parliament.  He said that Spain 
and Italy (and to some degree, the United Kingdom) were 
supporting EU membership for Turkey, but that France and 
Germany had major reservations.  Mora said he thought that 
Germany might be swayed at some point because of its 
commercial interests in Turkey, but with the issue of German 
citizenship for residents of Turkish decent stil