No one can doubt that human rights are key element of our agreement, and I want to avail myself of this opportunity to champion it, as well as its application, Borrell stressed at the European Parliament (EP) Plenary Session, in which right-wing MEPs managed to introduce a point to attack Cuba regarding human rights issue.

At the meeting, Borrell considered the Havana-Brussels cooperation mechanism as a ‘critical commitment’ to assist the Caribbean country ‘in political, economic and social reform.’

The aspect against Cuba promoted by parliamentarians from Renovar Europa Party and the European People’s Party was condemned by other MEPs including Spanish Manu Pineda and Portuguese Sandra Pereira, as an initiative to damage Cuba-EU agreements and relations, by using the pretext of human rights.

Regarding Cuba´s present economic plight, Josep Borrell pointed out that this sector has worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but ‘also due to other key exogenous reasons such as the restrictive US measures.’

During his four-year term as US President (2017-2021), Donald Trump adopted 240 measures to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba for over 60 years, many of these sanctions issued amid the pandemic.

pgh/Pll/msm / wmr