MADRID, Spain – Mexico and Spain are calling for an easing of sanctions against Cuba in light of recent reforms by the island's communist government.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says the European Union should fully lift sanctions imposed after the 2003 arrest of dissidents in Cuba but suspended in 2005.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderón says the United States' 50-year-old sanctions “have not worked.”

He also says Cuban President Raul Castro is “on the right path” with recent housing reforms and an end to bans on owning cell phones, staying in tourist hotels and buying electronics.

Calderón and Zapatero were speaking at a news conference Thursday in Madrid.