EU foreign ministers decided Monday to extend a suspension of EU sanctions against Cuba until next June but criticised Havana for a lack of progress on improving human rights, the bloc's Luxembourg presidency said Monday. "The council of ministers decided that these measures will remain suspended and will be re-examined in June 2006," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers here.
The EU in January suspended sanctions it had slapped on Havana in June 2003 following a crackdown on dissidents.
However, EU ministers rebuked Havana for a lack of any signs of greater respect for human rights and regretted that there had not been any new releases of political prisoners, the conclusions from the ministers' meeting here said.
They also "categorically condemned certain attitudes of Cuban authorities towards European lawmakers and journalists who were deported or forbidden from meeting of the opposition", Asselborn said.
The EU lashed out at Cuba last month for expelling and restricting several EU lawmakers and warned in thinly-veiled terms that it might reimpose sanctions on Havana.
Asselborn said the ministers asked "Cuba to abstain from these types of actions in the future".
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