EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday she hoped an international contact group on Venezuelan crisis would begin its work in the coming weeks
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday she hoped an international contact group on Venezuelan crisis would begin its work in the coming weeks."I updated the ministers on the work we are doing to establish an international contact group that might start to work in the coming weeks, hopefully in February," she told reporters in Brussels.
Speaking after an EU foreign ministers' meeting, Mogherini said the contact group would be assembled once Brussels had completed its work with regional and international stakeholders.
She stressed that the European Union's pressure policy on Caracas would continue but added it would also try to "open up space" for a political process in Venezuela.
The European Union has dismissed last May's election, which saw President Nicolas Maduro win a second term, as "neither free, nor fair" and has called for a new vote.
European envoys in Caracas have been engaging this month with the opposition-run National Assembly, whose speaker has said he is ready to take over as interim president to organize the ballot. He also urged the military to rise up against Maduro. An apparent revolt by a group of National Guard troops was suppressed on Monday.
