Italy has joined a European Union led contact group set to try and end the crisis in Venezuela within 90 days, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Thursday in Bucharest.
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have signed up to the Venezuela contact group, as well as four Latin American countries - Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Bolivia - she said.
If the contact group fails to end the standoff in Venezuela between Juan Guaido, the self-declared head of state and leftist president Nicolas Maduro, sanctions may follow against the Maduro regime, Mogherini said.
The first meeting of the group will be held at ministerial level in Latin America next week, Mogherini stated.
Guaido, the elected leader of the opposition-held National Assembly, declared himself the interim president on 23 January after leftist president Nikolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term earlier this month following polls marred by an opposition boycott and allegations of vote-rigging which triggered large protests in Venezuela.
France, Britain, Germany and Spain are among the EU countries that have told Maduro to call elections by the weekend or they will recognise Guaido as president.
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