International and Domestic Dynamics in EU-Cuban Relations Before and After the War in Ukraine

Constant shifts in EU-Cuban relations have been strongly influenced by international and domestic dynamics. As the EU’s true strategic partner and the main target of Cuba’s foreign policy (in a negative or positive sense), since the Revolution in 1959, the United States have conditioned the relationship between Brussels and Havana. Whereas the revolutionary regime resisted US attempts of political change by coercion, the EU took the opportunity to choose an independent policy from Washington by condemning the embargo against Cuba and signing in 2016 a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA), which established full relations between Havana and Brussels, replacing the restrictive 1996 EU Common Position.