6-12-08, 3:42 pm

The blockade against Cuba, which was initiated some 40 years ago by the U.S., suffered a major setback this week as European Union leaders announced their intention to end their sanctions against the island country.

According to media reports, EU states are close to an agreement and may make a proposal in Luxembourg early next week.

The announcement came as George W. Bush toured Europe, and it signaled his weakened position as a world leader and a EU rejection of the Bush administration's hardline stance against Cuba.

The sanctions under discussion were initially imposed in 2003 and suspended two years later. EU leaders cited political and economic reforms launched in Cuba since the February retirement of Cuban icon Fidel Castro as that country's president.

Getting to the heart of why they now are more favorably disposed toward Cuba, EU diplomats cited eased restrictions on consumer items, many of which will be purchased from EU-based corporations.

Nevertheless, EU leaders involved in the discussion on abolishing the sanctions permanently also proposed additional dialogue between Cuba and European countries.

The repressive, pro-Bush administration government in the Czech Republic, however, has parroted the statements of George W. Bush and Republican presidential nominee John McCain's dismissals of recent changes in Cuba. Spain, by contrast, has been the most vocal on ending the sanctions, viewing exchange and dialogue as worthier aims than blockade.

Ironically, those who oppose ending sanctions or lifting the embargo based on a belief that changes that have been made are insufficient or 'cynical,' as the Bush administration said this week, have to explain why such an embargo has failed to force the changes they insisted it would. Why keep pursuing a failed policy?

Like Bush administration officials and John McCain the Czech Republic insists it will only support abolishing sanctions if the EU is willing to legitimize groups in Cuba that want to overthrow the government or who have ties to proven terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles or Santiago Alvarez. John McCain, earlier this year, went so far as to hint at more direct U.S. intervention in Cuba in the event that he is elected as U.S. president.

It remains to be seen if such a directly interventionist and invasive condition as that pushed by the Czech government will be imposed on Cuba by the EU in exchange for lifting the sanctions.

--Reach Joel Wendland at