Petition response - On the call for consultations of the EU Ambassador to Cuba

16.04.2021

Dear petitioners,

High Representative/Vice President Borrell has asked me to thank you for your message and to reply on his behalf.

Mr Borrell asked Ambassador Navarro to come to Brussels in early March to discuss certain reproaches levelled against him. This discussion has since then taken place. In this context, Ambassador Navarro acknowledged that it was not within the scope of his functions as a diplomatic representative of the European Union to subscribe to initiatives of the kind as the open letter to President Biden.

Without this constituting an excuse, it should be noted that it is indeed the longstanding position of the EU to request the lifting of the US embargo against Cuba, and to consider that its extraterritorial effects are incompatible with international law.

Ambassador Navarro has now returned to his posting in Havana, where he will continue to represent the EU and its policy of constructive engagement with Cuba under the EUCuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement.