EU Refuses to Recognise Maduro's Re-election as Venezuelan President and Urge Authorities to Publish Results of Disputed Election

The European Council did not recognise the re-election of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and called for an independent verification of the election results.

This is stated in a press release on the website of the European Council.

The European Council stated, citing reports from international election observation missions, that the presidential election in Venezuela on 28 July did not meet international standards of election integrity. 

Also, seven EU countries, including Italy, France, Germany and Spain, have jointly called on the Venezuelan authorities to immediately publish voter lists to ensure full transparency of last weekend's elections, the Italian Prime Minister's office said on Saturday.

This comes after President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner, despite independent counts showing that the opposition candidate won more votes.

Venezuela's electoral council declared President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner of the 28 July election with 51% of the vote, immediately sparking accusations of fraud by the opposition. The opposition says that its own detailed count shows that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez probably received 67% of the vote.

The joint statement by the seven EU countries intensified the wave of criticism from abroad about the way the Venezuelan government is handling the elections.

Some countries, including the US and Argentina, have recognised Gonzalez as the winner of the election. Last week, the G7 foreign ministers expressed their solidarity with the people of Venezuela and their concern over the election results.