The vote, proposed by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, occurred after the EU decided, on Monday, to temporarily lift the sanctions imposed on the president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, and former leaders of that organization, namely flight restrictions in European airspace. According to the local press, the EU ratified, however, the sanctions on other members of the Government of Caracas, among them the vice-president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, sister of the president of parliament. "With this racist, arrogant, rude and insulting attitude of the EU, it becomes materially impossible, illegal, to invite the sending of an electoral observation mission. And the fault is not ours", justified Jorge Rodríguez when making the proposal. Rodríguez, who is also head of the delegation representing the Government in the negotiations with the Venezuelan opposition, also stressed that everything was done within the scope of his competences in relation to the European bloc. "We invited them, we sent them a letter, we received an exploratory mission, we spoke with them, we signed some papers, but there are principles that are absolutely non-negotiable", he stressed. The parliamentarian also said that "it became clear" that "it is a lie" that the EU only wants elections to be held in the country. "You [EU] do not want free and democratic elections (...) you want power in Venezuela to be held by a puppet, a senile puppet of the United States", said the politician, in a reference to the candidate supported by the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Edmundo González Urrutia. Rodríguez explained that parliament will send a letter to the CNE asking to cancel the invitation to the EU, because they are "rude, bastards, scoundrels, illegal and illegitimate". The president of the Venezuelan parliament also accused the EU of having violated its commitments to Caracas during the 2021 regional elections and of, in line with US policy, repeating the same attitude by ratifying the sanctions. The EU decided on Monday to temporarily lift sanctions imposed on Venezuelan leaders, as part of efforts to hold "inclusive and competitive" presidential elections on July 28, in which President Nicolás Maduro is a candidate for re-election. The 27 member states of the European Community bloc decided, in concrete terms, to ease sanctions on the president of the National Electoral Council, as well as three former members of the CNE, confirmed several European sources quoted by the Europa Press news agency. The measure involves, in particular, the provisional suspension of the application of travel restrictions to EU territory. The EU also decided to extend the remaining sanctions it maintains against Venezuela for a shorter period, until January 10, 2025, which coincides with the date set for the inauguration of the Venezuelan President who will be elected next July. The Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, downplayed the EU's decision and assured that it was a "deceptive" gesture, that Caracas would only consider lifting all sanctions. Gil took advantage of a speech before the Group of Friends of the United Nations Charter to highlight the extension of most of the sanctions against Venezuela, "simply because [it] does not bow to the decisions of the European bloc". Therefore, he criticized that, in a "deceptive" way, the EU wants to "supposedly send a sign of good faith or relief". He also stressed that neither the United States nor "its satellites" in Europe will consume "the theory of regime change" in Venezuela. In October 2023, the Venezuelan Government and the opposition signed the Barbados Agreement, which included guarantees for holding presidential elections in the country, among them that the EU could send a technical mission to observe the Venezuelan electoral process. Also Read: Diplomatic Asylum. Former rulers accuse Venezuela of violating Convention (Portuguese version)