Brussels, 10/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The official press agency, Jana, has indicated that Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish minister for foreign affairs, was granted a meeting on Monday 8 March at the end of the day in Tripoli by the Libyan Supreme Guide Mouammar Ghadafii, to whom he gave a message on behalf of King Juan Carlos. According to the press agency, the Spanish King informed Colonel Ghadafi of the great esteem in which he saw Euro-Libyan relations and expressed the hope he had of developing these relations further. In addition to the royal message, Mr Moratinos was keen to undo the crisis between Libya and the EU, resulting from the serious dispute opposing this country and Switzerland over the last few months. This issue was not, however, mentioned in the press release published by Jana.
This crisis resulted from the suspension of Libyan visas being granted to nationals from the Schengen area, as a reprisal for the drastic measures imposed by Berne on Libyan citizens entering Swiss territory. The affair has had repercussions throughout the Schengen area (although it has lessened somewhat since then) and has provoked a certain gnashing of teeth and friction between the Swiss authorities and a number of EU member states keen to maintain their good relations with the sizeable Arab-Mediterranean oil producer. Italy and France have criticised Switzerland for allowing its confrontation with Libya to endanger their own relations with this country and with the whole of the EU. It is seeking to normalise its relations with this country (a country characterised by its diplomatic unpredictability).
Two days before Moratinos, Luis Amado, the Portuguese minister for foreign affairs, went to Tripoli to meet his Libyan counterpart, Moussa Koussa. The two men discussed “prospects for co-operation between the two countries, as well as consolidation of this cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, oil and gas, the cement industry, information technology and new energies”. A Portuguese economic delegation was invited to visit Libya to “establish a practical programme and mechanisms for applying agreements between the two countries in the domains of the above-mentioned cooperation”. No reference, however, was made to the ongoing crisis. The Libyan minister, nonetheless, suggested that a swift solution was envisaged. According to the Swiss media, he provided assurances that Libya would accept the verdict of an arbitration body whatever decision transpired. Moussa Koussa was keen to thank Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Turkey, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League, African Union and the Islamic Conference Organisation “for supporting Libya's position”.
In a press release, Simon Busuttil MEP (EPP, Malta) called on the EU to immediately take all necessary action to put an end to this diplomatic crisis, adding, “the EU has nothing to do with this and there is no reason why EU citizens should suffer as a result” of bad Swiss Libyan relations undermining solidarity, which was clearly a result of the attitude adopted by Berne. (F.B./transl.fl)