On behalf of the European Commission, the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, set out the position of the 27-State organization in response to written questions from Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt, from the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

The Commission regrets the total activation in 2019 of the Helms-Burton Act, it underlined with regard to the decision by then US President Donald Trump to promote Titles III and IV of the initiative to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, in particular in order to deprive it of access to foreign investment.

McGuinness recalled that the “Blocking Statute”, Regulation 2271 of the European Council of November 22, 1996, protects the economic agents of the EU and annuls the effects of any foreign rule or administrative decision.

Since the update of the Statute in 2018, we have received some 30 requests for authorization to exceptionally comply with said foreign laws, she specified in response to one of Van Brempt’s concerns.

The commissioner warned that the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act represents a breach of the commitments assumed by Washington in the EU-United States agreements of 1997 and 1998.

Likewise, she assured that the European Commission supervises the effective implementation of the “Blocking Statute” and supports European operators in its application.

According to McGuinness, the EU frequently discusses with the US Government at different levels the issue of coercive measures and the effects of their extraterritorial component.

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