Petition against the blockade of Cuba delivered to the European Parliament

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 9 (ACN) Cooperation and solidarity organizations from Spain, France, Italy and Sweden delivered to the European Parliament a petition demanding immediate action against the U.S. blockade of Cuba and its extraterritorial nature, the promoters said this Sunday.

The document presented by Cuba Coopération France, the State Movement of Solidarity with Cuba in Spain, the National Association of Italy-Cuba Friendship and the Swedish-Cuban Association of Solidarity asks institutions of the European Union (EU) for concrete responses and the use of the legal tools available to confront the siege and its consequences.

Prensa Latina news agency reported that in that sense, it includes a request to the European Commission to submit as soon as possible to the European Parliament an initiative that would allow the designation of banks in the EU member states to carry out financial transactions with the island, a scenario that is almost impossible at present due to the fear of those entities to the sanctions and pressures from Washington.

The promoters of the petition recall that between 2009 and 2016, European banks paid 16 billion dollars (nine billion for BNP Paribas) in fines imposed by the United States under cover of the extraterritoriality of its aggressions against the Antillean nation.

Likewise, it urges the Commission to elaborate a mechanism aimed at putting into practice the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Cuba, especially in its economic and commercial aspects and in those related to the neutralization of the extraterritorial effects of that policy, as long as it continues to be applied.

The text also includes a call to the Commission to investigate the direct economic consequences of the blockade for European banks and companies.

The petition also contains the demand that the Committee on Petitions analyze the issue and formally inform the competent US authority of the EU's rejection of the blockade and its extraterritoriality, transmit the initiative received to the relevant committees of the European Parliament and evaluate the possibility of convening a hearing on the situation.

Cuba Coopération France (CubaCoop) launched in September in the context of the Fête de l'Humanité the project of joint work with organizations and personalities to promote in the old continent concrete responses to Washington's hostility towards the small country, besieged for more than six decades.

The aim of the European initiative is to combine the political rejection of the blockade with greater economic cooperation with the island to help it overcome its difficulties, assuming that Washington shows no signs of abandoning its aggressiveness.

Regarding the petition delivered to the European Parliament, CubaCoop, the State Movement of Solidarity with Cuba in Spain, the National Association of Italy-Cuba Friendship and the Swedish-Cuban Association denounced the suffering caused by the tightened siege and its nature contrary to International Law.