The European Parliament recognized Venezuela's self-declared interim president Juan Guaido as de facto head of state on Thursday, heightening international pressure on the OPEC member's socialist President Nicolas Maduro. EU lawmakers voted 439 in favor to 104 against, with 88 abstentions, at a special session in Brussels to recognize Venezuelan congress head Guaido as interim leader. In a statement with the non-binding vote, the parliament urged the bloc's 28 governments to follow suit and consider Guaido "the only legitimate interim president" until there were "new free, transparent and credible presidential elections". British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who spoke to Guaido on Wednesday and wants further EU sanctions on Venezuelan officials, urged counterparts to embrace the 35-year-old head of Venezuela's National Assembly. "Parliament has spoken. For us, Mr. Guaido is the president of Venezuela and we do hope that the European Union will find a united position on this," he told reporters on arrival at a two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he was ready to join a common position on Venezuela if the bloc could agree what next steps to take. Though accusing Maduro of stifling democracy, the European Union is nervous at the precedent of a self-declaration, so has been reluctant to follow the United States and most Latin American nations with immediate recognition of Guaido. Britain, France, Germany and Spain said on Saturday, however, that they would recognize Guaido unless Maduro called elections within eight days. But the EU as a whole has not set a time limit in its call for a new presidential vote. Maduro has dismissed the demands as an unacceptable ultimatum from the corrupt elite of spent colonial powers. "The leaders of Europe are sycophants, kneeling behind the policies of Donald Trump," he said at the weekend. The European Parliament has no foreign policy powers but sees itself as a champion of human rights. "Those who are demonstrating today in the streets of Venezuela are not Europeans, but they fight for the same values for which we fight," Spanish center-right EU lawmaker Esteban Gonzalez Pons said in a statement. As Venezuela has sunk into economic and political crisis that has brought mass emigration and hyperinflation, the EU imposed an arms embargo and sanctions on officials to decry what it views as rights violations and the rupture of democracy. On Thursday, the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said seven foreign journalists were detained in Venezuela, including French and Spanish reporters. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for their release. "Our request is for them to be immediately released," Mogherini told reporters in Bucharest, where EU foreign ministers will discuss the Venezuela crisis. Five foreign journalists, including two from France and one from Spain, have been held in Venezuela this week, and two more, from Chile, have been deported. The arrests come with the oil-rich but economically wrecked South American state deep in political turmoil. Ahead of the Bucharest meeting, Hunt said he would press his EU colleagues for new sanctions against what he called Venezuelan "kleptocrats" as a way to step up pressure on Maduro. Guaido himself has called for more EU sanctions targeting the Maduro regime. No quick decision is expected as the legal basis for any sanctions would take some time to prepare. Mogherini reiterated the EU's call for new elections in Venezuela. The bloc has warned it will "take further actions" if new elections are not called in the coming days. — Reuters
