On Wednesday 21 January, the European Parliament called for the suspension of the EU–Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement.

Today, ECR MEPs have formally written to High Representative Kaja Kallas, setting out why the PDCA must be suspended, EU funding to Havana halted, and termination seriously considered.

The Cuban regime violates human rights, exports repression, and actively supports Russia’s war against Ukraine. Europe cannot continue business as usual.

The letter reads in full:

Dear High Representative,

Ten years after the signing of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with Cuba, despite the commitments undertaken by Havana and despite the European Union’s political and financial openness, the Cuban regime has become more repressive towards its own citizens, more destabilising for the Latin American region, and increasingly engaged in actions directly threatening the security of Europe and its citizens. For these reasons, we call on you to suspend the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement and to terminate all EU financial support channelled to Havana.

This appeal reflects the clear position of the European Parliament. In its most recent annual report on the implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the European Parliament strongly criticised the authoritarian regime in Cuba and its persistent and systematic violations of human rights. Our letter constitutes the direct follow-up to Parliament’s call “to use all necessary available instruments, without the exclusion of any, to ensure compliance with the democratic and human rights clauses of the cooperation agreements with these countries, which could involve their revision, in particular with regard to Cuba, which is additionally a close partner of the regimes in Moscow and Minsk, providing them with political support and contributing negatively to European security, inter alia by facilitating the involvement of hundreds of Cuban mercenaries in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.” The European Parliament further underlined that the regime in Havana cannot continue to benefit from privileged cooperation with the European Union, including under the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement.

The Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement was intended to support the modernisation of the Cuban economy and society on the explicit condition of respect for democratic principles, all human rights and fundamental freedoms, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core international human-rights instrument, as well as respect for the rule of law—elements which the Agreement defines as essential. Unfortunately, the Cuban regime manifestly fails to meet these democratic and human-rights conditions. It continues to repress political opponents, restrict freedom of expression and information, and suppress independent civil society. In 2025, political repression not only persisted but intensified. According to independent human-rights organisations, Cuba closed the year with 134 new political prisoners, bringing the total number to 1,1972. In this context, the PDCA provision under which Havana recognises that all peoples have the right to freely determine their political system and to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development appears profoundly disconnected from reality.

The crisis in Venezuela cannot be analysed in isolation, nor can it be treated as a purely internal matter. For many years, the Cuban regime has systematically transferred repressive methods, institutional blueprints, and security doctrines to Venezuela, effectively exporting an authoritarian model of governance. Through opaque and unaccountable bilateral arrangements — including schemes involving forced labour, intelligence cooperation, training and infiltration of security forces, operational military support, and direct involvement in the functioning of core state institutions, in particular in the area of security — Cuba has entrenched a system of control explicitly designed to neutralise dissent, criminalise protest, and guarantee the indefinite survival of authoritarian rule. This deliberate externalisation of repression has had devastating and long-lasting consequences for democracy, human rights, and institutional integrity in Venezuela and beyond. Cuban security and intelligence personnel have, for years, been embedded within Venezuelan state structures, actively assisting the regime of Nicolás Maduro in consolidating its grip on power, penetrating the armed forces and security services, and systematically repressing democratic opposition and civil society. The export of Cuban repressive expertise thus contributes directly to the erosion of democracy and the rule of law across Latin America, exacerbating regional instability and acting as a significant driver of forced displacement and migration. In parallel, numerous international reports have documented credible links between Cuban state institutions — or structures operating with state tolerance — and transnational illicit activities, including participation in or facilitation of networks engaged in smuggling, corruption, and other forms of organised criminality throughout the wider region, including controlling, instrumentalising, and profiting from irregular migration channels. These activities further undermine regional security and the rules-based international order. Taken together, these actions constitute a fundamental and blatant contradiction of the very essence, principles, and binding commitments of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA).

Particularly alarming from a European perspective are the hostile actions of the Cuban regime in our immediate neighbourhood. Cuba remains a close partner of both Russia and Belarus—states that pose a direct threat to the security of the European Union. Havana provides them with political support and is actively involved in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine by facilitating the deployment of Cuban mercenaries. According to Ukrainian security services, their number exceeds several thousand, making Cubans the largest group of foreign mercenaries fighting within Russian ranks. Under the conditions of a tightly controlled dictatorship, such large-scale participation of Cuban citizens in a foreign war cannot occur without the knowledge and approval of the authorities in Havana. This is not the result of isolated individual decisions, but a systematic practice involving illicit recruitment networks operating openly and with the tacit consent of the regime3. The Cuban government’s failure to prevent or halt this process constitutes direct complicity in aggression. Since seizing power in 1959, the Castro dictatorship has consistently deployed its forces abroad in support of Moscow’s military and geopolitical objectives—from Africa and the Middle East to Latin America, and now Europe. Today, this pattern continues with Cuba acting as a strategic enabler of Russian imperial ambitions. Therefore, we wish to stress that the regime in Havana has, from the very beginning, openly and systematically violated Article 1 of the PDCA. That provision lays down the fundamental principles of the Agreement and contains Cuba’s explicit commitment to support a strong and effective multilateral system, to fully respect and abide by international law, and to uphold the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

The Castro regime remains one of the most loyal allies of Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, maintaining close and active cooperation with other authoritarian regimes. The European Union cannot ignore or pretend neutrality with regard to the political choices made by Havana, including its positions and voting behaviour in international fora such as the United Nations. We recall that one of the explicit objectives of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement was to engage in a result-oriented dialogue on the basis of international law in order to strengthen bilateral cooperation and mutual engagement in international fora, in particular the United Nations, with the aim of strengthening human rights and democracy, achieving sustainable development and ending discrimination in all its aspects.

In practice, however, Cuba has consistently acted in direct contradiction to these objectives, aligning itself with regimes that undermine the international legal order, oppose human-rights accountability, and actively challenge democratic values. This conduct fundamentally negates the purpose of the PDCA’s provisions on cooperation within the United Nations framework and further demonstrates Havana’s failure to honour its commitments under the Agreement.

The European Union’s continued insistence on maintaining the PDCA, in defiance of these facts, is particularly troubling at a time when Europe seeks close cooperation with the United States to defeat Russian aggression in Ukraine. Simultaneously, the EU risks strengthening, financing, and legitimising one of Russia’s closest allies in the Western Hemisphere—located barely 90 miles from the United States.

We also recall military agreements between Havana-Minsk, and Havana-Moscow, which include the training of Cuban soldiers in proximity to the European Union’s borders. Moreover, we draw attention to recent revelations by Lithuanian authorities concerning the involvement of Cuban nationals in acts of sabotage on EU territory. In September 2024, four Cuban citizens were accused of planning a terrorist attack against a military supplier supporting Ukraine in Šiauliai. According to Lithuanian prosecutors, the operation may have been coordinated from Russia by individuals linked to Russian military intelligence.

It is difficult to identify even a single area covered by the PDCA in which Havana can be said to be in genuine compliance, while breaches of the Agreement appear to be systematic and pervasive across almost all of its substantive provisions. It is therefore difficult to understand the European Union’s continued failure to acknowledge this evident reality

Against this background, we express our deep concern that, for years, EU institutions have channelled hundreds of millions of euros in development and humanitarian aid to Cuba. Given the state’s monopoly over the economy and its total control of the legal and political system, foreign funds are inevitably filtered through regime-controlled entities, state-owned companies, and structures subordinated to the Communist Party. It is now evident that EU financial assistance ultimately benefits the regime rather than the Cuban people.

It is time for the European Union to take appropriate and necessary action. Policies pursued by the regime in Cuba, which have inflicted severe and enduring harm on the Cuban people, while being incompatible with the values of the Union, contrary to the interests of European citizens, and detrimental to our security can no longer be tolerated. Accordingly, in line with the call of the European Parliament, the time has come to suspend the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement pursuant to Article 85, to seriously consider its termination in accordance with Article 86(4), and to immediately halt all commitments and disbursements of EU financial assistance to Havana.

Yours sincerely,

Mariusz Kaminski

Adam Bielan

Carlo Fidanza

Arkadiusz Mularczyk

Link to the letter here.