Strasbourg/The European Parliament will vote this Thursday on a resolution that urges the European Union to suspend the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba if the regime does not adopt concrete and significant measures towards full and multiparty democracy in the short term.
The proposal, promoted by center-right groups, currently has the support of the European People’s Party, the European Conservatives and Reformists and the liberals of Renew Europe. Between them they have 343 MEPs, 18 less than necessary to reach an absolute majority.
The text demands a specific plan for a political transition, the immediate and unconditional release of the almost 1,300 political prisoners and guarantees so that Cuban exiles can return to the Island without suffering reprisals.
It also condemns the systematic repression of the Cuban regime, calls for sanctions against Miguel Díaz-Canel and maintains that the only way out of the suffering, poverty and isolation of the country is through a profound change, both political and economic, that leads without further delay to a democratic transition.
“The European Parliament has the opportunity to give a new slap, but strong and true, to end Cuban tyranny”
The approval of the resolution will largely depend on Patriots for Europe, which has presented several amendments to toughen the tone against Havana. The group links its final support to these modifications being accepted.
“The European Parliament has the opportunity to give a new slap, but strong and real, to end Cuban tyranny,” the head of the Vox delegation in the European Parliament, Jorge Buxadé, told EFE.
Buxadé warned that his party will not accept that the European People’s Party once again “throws itself into the arms of the progressives”, in reference to a possible negotiation with social democrats and greens.
The lack of references to US economic sanctions and restrictions on fuel supplies has prevented these two groups from joining the center-right text. Social Democrats and Greens have presented an alternative proposal that, in addition to denouncing the repression and demanding the release of political prisoners, demands that Washington put an end to what they describe as “illegitimate practices” against Cuba.
The division over the role of the United States threatens to prevent a common position of the European Parliament
Socialist negotiator Leire Pajín stated that her group shares the denunciation of the situation of political rights on the Island, the demand for economic and political reforms and the demand for respect for fundamental freedoms.
However, he considered that a resolution on the serious humanitarian deterioration in Cuba must include “all the reasons” that have contributed to the crisis.
Pajín mentioned the long-standing economic embargo and the recent measures by the Donald Trump Administration against the supply of oil to the Island, which, he said, have aggravated the blackouts and shortages of medicine and food.
The socialist MEP also stressed that Washington’s measures have begun to directly affect European economic interests, after hotel chains such as Meliá and Iberostar announced that they will stop operating some of their establishments in Cuba. “When that happens, we have to denounce the situation in all its elements from the beginning,” he said.
The division over the role of the United States thus threatens to prevent a common position from the European Parliament, despite the fact that the main groups agree in denouncing the repression, demanding the release of political prisoners and demanding profound reforms to the Cuban regime.
