The European Union (EU) warned that the blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba hurts its interests and reiterated its rejection of the extraterritoriality of that policy.

Brussels.- The community bloc of 27 member states headquartered in Brussels issued a report stating its position on the text prepared by UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the request of the United Nations General Assembly in its 2019 resolution on the need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial siege imposed by Washington on the island.

The EU pointed out that the unilateral U.S. measures against Cuba violate the rules accepted by the countries for international trade and insisted on the extraterritorial nature of the blockade, expressed among others by Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) laws.

It pointed out the consequences of the intensification of the hostility of the White House on “the possibility of relating with the Cuban people” and on the “incipient private sector of Cuba.” Brussels underlined in the report sent to the Secretary-General the economic impact of the blockade on the Caribbean island and the standard of living of its inhabitants, including in the humanitarian field.

“The embargo constitutes an additional obstacle in Cuba's ability to face the COVID-19 pandemic,” it denounced.

Donald Trump's administration adopted 243 measures to reinforce the siege aimed at suffocating the island, 55 of them taken at the height of the pandemic, decisions that are still in force five months after the arrival in the Oval Office of his successor, Joe Biden, who promised in the election campaign to reverse several of them.

The EU recalled that its Council of Ministers in November 1996 adopted regulations to protect European interests, both companies, and individuals, from the extraterritorial effects of the Helms-Burton Act, whose Title III and IV were activated in 2019 by Trump to increase pressure on foreign investors willing to do business with Cuba.

The European Union urged the United States to stop applying them and showed a willingness to use instruments and options to protect the economic activities of its citizens and companies in the Caribbean country.

The bloc defended its Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba, which has been provisionally applied since November 1, 2017.

Next Wednesday, the UN General Assembly will debate and vote on a new draft resolution on the need for the United States to lift the blockade against Cuba, a text similar to the one approved in that multilateral forum on 28 consecutive occasions since 1992, without the initiative being presented last year due to the pandemic. (RHC)