MEPs have called on the EU to impose targeted sanctions on Cuban officials and consider suspending its cooperation agreement with Havana, citing repression and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
In a resolution approved on Thursday by 283 votes to 199, with 85 abstentions, the European Parliament said Cuba was “close to being a failed state” after five decades of communist rule.
It said 89% of families were living in extreme poverty and described the humanitarian emergency as “not the product of any external embargo but the direct consequence of the regime's own model and failures”.
MEPs said Cuba held 1,281 political prisoners at the end of May 2026, including minors, and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and others “arbitrarily detained” for exercising fundamental rights.
They also demanded an end to torture and ill-treatment and said victims of torture should receive full reparation.
Calls for EU sanctions and a rethink of cooperation
The resolution urges the EU to use its global human rights sanctions regime — a framework for imposing measures such as asset freezes and travel bans on individuals linked to serious human rights abuses — against those responsible for repression, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the European Parliament said.
MEPs also called for sanctions against the leadership of GAESA, which Parliament described as a military conglomerate controlling close to half of Cuba’s economy.
If there are no clear steps towards democratic transition in the short term, the EU should suspend the EU-Cuba political dialogue and cooperation agreement.
MEPs also urged the European Commission and EU member states to develop humanitarian channels to deliver energy, food and medicine directly to the Cuban people, and called on donors to step up humanitarian aid.
The resolution criticised Cuba’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, including the recruitment of Cuban nationals to fight against Ukraine, and condemned Cuba’s deepening military cooperation with Moscow and its alignment with the Lukashenka government in Belarus.
