On Thursday 29 February, with 285 votes in favour, 172 against and 46 abstentions, MEPs adopted a resolution on the “critical” situation in Cuba.
Over 70% of MEPs from the EPP and Renew Europe groups voted in favour of the text, while members of the S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left groups were overwhelmingly opposed.
With this resolution, the European Parliament denounces in particular “the alarming increase in the number of political prisoners” and condemns “the systematic violations of human rights”.
The text also calls on the EU Council to apply the EU’s Magnitsky Act, which allows individuals and entities responsible for or implicated in serious human rights violations to be sanctioned by a ban on access to EU territory, and potentially even an asset freeze.
On Tuesday, during a debate in plenary, Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spanish) deplored the fact that the EU-Cuba cooperation agreement, signed in 2017 and aimed in particular at “strengthening human rights and democracy”, was “not being respected” by Havana and that the EU had not suspended it.
For her part, the Commissioner for Strategic Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, felt that it was necessary to “remedy human rights problems and support economic and social reforms” in Cuba, calling for “close cooperation” in the current geopolitical context.
Link to the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/b3e (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)