The European Union said it will summon Venezuela's ambassador to Brussels on Tuesday after the government of Nicolas Maduro announced the expulsion of the bloc's representative to Caracas. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell earlier condemned the expulsion and said it would not go unanswered. "We are going to summon Maduro's ambassador to the European institutions today and, from there, we will see what measures will be taken," European diplomacy spokeswoman Virginie Battu said at a press conference. However Battu said the EU "cannot physically expel an ambassador from a territory, since that is a competence of a host country". The Venezuelan ambassador to the EU, Claudia Salerno, is also an envoy to Belgium and Luxembourg. The EU could declare Salerno "persona non grata" under the Vienna Convention, said Battu, adding that next steps would be discussed with the two host countries. Maduro on Monday gave the EU's Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa 72 hours to leave the country in response to European sanctions against 11 Venezuelans. Relations have been tense since 2017, when Venezuela became the first Latin American country to be hit by EU sanctions, including an arms embargo. tjc-arp/txw