MADRID, Spain.- The Foreign Relations Committee of the Swedish Parliament will officially request this Thursday the cessation of financing from the European Union (EU) to the Castro dictatorship through the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC), signed in 2016, due to to the violations of human rights by the Cuban government and its alliance with the regime of Vladimir Putin in the aggression against the people of Ukraine.
This was expressed this Wednesday by the Swedish deputy Markus Wiechel during a hearing in the Swedish Parliament with the representatives of the different political parties of Sweden and in which the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC) and leaders of Cuban civil society.
“It is inconsistent that the European Union sanctions Russia and finances the communist regime in Cuba. (…) The communist regime of Cuba should not have the honor of being recognized as the legitimate representative of the Cuban people, ”Wiechel said in his speech.
For his part, Dr. Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, coordinator of the ARC, referred to the Cuban reality and what the existence of this cooperation treaty means in terms of repression for the people of Cuba.
While the Spanish deputy Hermann Tertsch elaborated on the procedure to review the Agreement within the European Union and announced that next week the ECR Group will ask the European Parliament for the resignation of Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Politics of Security for his conduct on a recent visit to Cuba, in which he ignored the situation of political prisoners in the country and the violation of human rights.
This meeting was organized by the Swedish parliamentarian Björn Söder, who last may raised concerns about whether the Swedish government intended to take the initiative for the EU to cancel the PDCA agreement and stop supporting the island’s regime.
In response to Söder, Foreign Trade Minister Johan Forssell said that the Swedish government considered that the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the Cuban government should be reviewed.
In this sense, Forssell expressed: “The Government views with concern the continuous negative development in Cuba and the repressive actions of the Cuban State. It can be stated that the PDCA agreement has been provisionally applied for a little over five years and the Government’s assessment is that there are reasons to review the EU’s commitment policy and the PDCA agreement, including EU aid to Cuba.” .
