The European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Neven Mimica, said that Europeans were exploring, within the International Contact Group on Venezuela, the possibility of setting up “an international mechanism for the coordination and delivery of humanitarian aid” within the country, on Tuesday,12 March during a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“Humanitarian aid should never be politicised” and must be delivered “impartially” by “independent experts”, Mr. Mimica said. He recalled that in the last 2 years the EU had committed more than €67 million in emergency aid to Venezuelans who remained in the country or who had taken refuge in neighbouring countries such as Colombia and Brazil.
To date, 2.7 million people have fled Venezuela, a country with the world's largest reserves of heavy oil, but facing a serious political and economic crisis that culminated in a nationwide blackout over the past 5 days. The number of Venezuelan refugees could rise to five million by the end of the year, the Commissioner noted.
Rejecting any military option, Mr, Mimica called for a political solution to the crisis through the organisation of free and credible presidential elections, as the EU does not recognise Nicolás Maduro's second term as President. First, political prisoners must be released and electoral reform initiated, he added.
This is also the work of the International Contact Group of European and Latin American countries, which will meet again at ministerial level at the end of March in Latin America (see EUROPE 12196/7).
During the parliamentary debate, Esteban González Pons (EPP, Spain), who recently met with the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaidó, urged the EU to sanction more members of the Maduro regime. He was supported in this respect by Javier Nart (ALDE, Spain). From the moderates, Ramón Jáuregui Atondo (S&D, Spain) warned against “the increasing risks of an internal conflict in Venezuela” and Charles Tannock (ECR, UK) asked all Member States - there are about twenty of them today (see EUROPE 12187/11) - to recognise the legitimacy of Mr Guaidó, as President of the National Assembly, to organise presidential elections.
From the far left, Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL, Spain) and Konstantinos Papadakis (NA, Greek) denounced the imperialist aims of foreign powers who, on the pretext of restoring democracy, are trying to force a regime change in Venezuela to get their hands on its oil, similar to what happened in Libya. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)