The European Commission has committed a further €10 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, citing the continued deterioration of conditions on an island where the electricity grid has repeatedly collapsed.
Brussels said the money would go to the most vulnerable, among them older people, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and remote communities hit hardest by fuel shortages.
The funding is intended to sustain healthcare through medicines and support for primary and maternal care centres, alongside emergency food aid and nutritional treatment for children and mothers. It will also cover repairs to water systems, water treatment supplies, logistical support for hard-to-reach areas and renewable energy solutions.
European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said daily life had become steadily harder and that energy shortages were obstructing access to basic supplies, medical care and other essential services. She framed the money as an act of solidarity with Cubans.
The allocation adds to €4 million approved earlier in 2026 as a regional package for the Caribbean, directed mainly at Cuban needs, and to a €2 million top-up released on April 1. Nearly €6 million was mobilised for disaster preparedness and emergency response in Cuba during 2025.
Brussels said the tranche followed European Union assistance after Hurricane Melissa struck the south-east of the island on October 29, 2025.
Cuba’s energy crisis worsened in January when Washington halted Venezuelan oil shipments after the capture of Nicolás Maduro and threatened tariffs on any country supplying fuel to Havana. The island suffered its third nationwide blackout in a fortnight on July 15.
The commitment comes a month after the European Parliament called for the immediate suspension of the political dialogue and cooperation agreement signed with Cuba in December 2016.
MEPs adopted that resolution on June 18 by 283 votes to 199, with 85 abstentions, warning that the country risked becoming a failed state. They said the humanitarian emergency was “not the result of any external embargo” but a consequence of the communist model.
The text also urged targeted sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and executives of GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls close to half the economy. It cited 1,281 political prisoners recorded by campaign group Prisoners Defenders at the end of May.
European Union High Representative Kaja Kallas told MEPs in May that the agreement was under review and had not delivered the expected results.
A Spanish free-market think tank estimated this month that Madrid had kept the Cuban Government afloat with close to €5 billion in debt write-offs and aid.
Aid delivery has been constrained by the same fuel shortage. The United Nations reported in April that 170 containers of relief supplies remained stranded on the island.
