The Diplomat
The European Union has insisted to Venezuela on the importance of holding democratic, inclusive and fair presidential elections in 2024 in order to crystallise the change of position towards the country and lift international sanctions.
The offer was made to Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, in the framework of the meeting organised in the margins of the EU-CELAC summit, which took place in Brussels and in which the opposition negotiator, Gerardo Blyde, for the Unitary Platform, also participated.
The meeting was hosted by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who for months has been taking the initiative, within the EU, to try to find a way out of the situation in Venezuela. Also present at the Brussels meeting were the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula a Silva; of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; and of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; as well as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell. Spain, whose prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has alternated his presence at the summit with trips to Spain to take part in election rallies, has been absent from these negotiations.
Macron’s call came after the Venezuelan authorities’ rejection of the possible deployment of an EU electoral observation mission and criticism of the European presence in the regional and local elections at the end of 2021, which they accuse of “meddling in internal political affairs”.
In this scenario, the meeting was intended to try to bring the Bolivarian regime and the opposition closer together, and to try to convince Nicolas Maduro’s government to hold ‘inclusive’, ‘democratic’ and ‘acceptable to the international community and Venezuelans’ elections in 2024. If that were to happen, the EU would offer a roadmap for lifting sanctions on Venezuela and bringing the country closer to the international community.
Borrell told reporters yesterday that “Venezuela cannot miss the opportunity to hold these elections and for that we are ready to help in any way we can”. He added that the question now is “how to move forward at the same time in the progressive lifting of sanctions and normalising the process, freeing political prisoners and making it possible for all the leaders to stand in the elections”.
In this sense, Borrell praised France’s initiative in putting the problem on the table, although he acknowledged that “not many agreements came out of the meeting”.
On the European side, the meeting served to take stock and shed light on the desire to reach a resolution to the crisis as soon as possible. On the table was the holding of inclusive elections and also the implementation of the United Nations humanitarian plan to mobilise funds for the country, as a way of offering Venezuela incentives to take steps towards political normalisation, reports Europa Press.
They also highlight the importance of the participation of the president of Brazil, the continent’s main power with the capacity to influence the parties, in what represents a radical change from the Jair Bolsonaro era in which Brazil excluded itself from regional cooperation initiatives.
The EU has the declared objective of resuming relations with Caracas and has opened itself to reviewing individual sanctions against the leaders of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, “in step” with the changes promoted by Venezuela to hold free elections.
European diplomacy sees the situation in Venezuela as ‘totally different’ and wants to take advantage of the opportunity represented by the changes at the national level and the more favourable political climate in the region, with the involvement of Colombia and Brazil in the democratic solution to the political and social crisis in the Caribbean country. However, it considers progress in the dialogue between the government and the opposition in Mexico and steps towards fair elections in 2024 to be key.
The EU has also criticised the 15-year disqualification of prominent opposition leader María Corina Machado and warned that this step aggravates the crisis in the country and runs counter to holding transparent presidential elections in 2024.
