The European Parliament called for new EU sanctions aimed directly at Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, as well as the activation of the democracy clause of the Association Agreement between the EU and Central America applicable since 2013, in a resolution adopted on Thursday 16 December (619 votes in favour, 25 votes against, 41 abstentions).
During the plenary debate, Leopold López Gil (EPP, Spain), Javi López (S&D, Spain) and Tilly Metz (Greens/EFA, Luxembourg) denounced the democratic “farce” of the recent presidential elections in Nicaragua (see EUROPE 12828/15), calling for the release of political prisoners and for new restrictive measures.
“We want more sanctions. Sanctions against Ortega. (...) We want the democratic clause of the Central America Association Agreement to be applied. We want the protection mechanisms for human rights defenders and journalists to be strengthened”, said Soraya Rodríguez (Renew Europe, Spain). He added: “We want humanitarian aid to continue, but we don't want any international funding from the EU or its Member States to go to this corrupt regime”.
Saddened by the fact that Ortega has turned into a “dictator” identical to his predecessor, Anastasio Somoza, whom he had beaten, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, justified the hesitation to take certain general sanctions.
“We are not suspending the system of trade preferences enshrined in the Association Agreement, because only €300 million of exports to the EU would be affected and this would not affect the regime. We are also not implementing the political clauses of the agreement, because one Member State has still not ratified the global agreement”, he said. The cooperation programmes support projects related to climate and biodiversity, the local economic fabric and education. Suspending them would affect already vulnerable populations, Mr Borrell said.
Opposing the resolution, Manu Pineda (The Left, Spain) advised his counterparts to accept decisions taken by the people, “even when they don’t like them”.
See the resolution: https://bit.ly/3E2t1Cj (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)