Brussels, 29/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 March, the European Commission welcomed the announcement made by the EU and Libya over the weekend concerning the mutual lifting of restrictions on the granting of visas, thus putting an end to the crisis caused by the Swiss ban on Libyan citizens from entering the Schengen zone. The European decision was made possible after the Swiss authorities decided to remove 188 Libyan nationals, including President Muammar Gaddafi, from the black list of the Schengen Information System (SIS). In return, Libya lifted the ban on granting visas to Europeans from the Schengen zone. The European Commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström, voiced her satisfaction at the result, which was made possible by the intensive efforts of countries such as Spain and Germany. "The European Commission welcomes the efforts made by Switzerland and Libya to put an end to this controversy", she said on Monday. "We will now be following the situation closely and we hope that the Swiss citizen Max Göldi can be freed very soon", stressed Ms Malmström. For his part, Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil (EPP) said that this turn of events was a "good result" for European diplomacy and the European citizens, particularly for those who work in Libya. The MEP is now calling for a review of the Schengen rules to prevent a member country from being able to use the visa restriction mechanism for political purposes, without the agreement of the other countries of the free-circulation zone. The removal of the Libyan names from the Schengen blacklist was announced by the Spanish Presidency on Saturday 27 March, in a press release distributed by the Libyan authorities in Surt, Libya, on the sidelines of the Arab summit. "The names of the Libyan citizens previously included on the (blacklist) of the Schengen zone have been removed for good", states the text. "The provision referred to was taken by a country which is a member of the Schengen zone but not of the EU, which was not involved in this affair", the press release stresses. "We denounce and deplore disagreements and the problems resulting from this provision against Libyan citizens and we hope that such events do not happen again in the future", said the Presidency of the EU, which also voiced hopes that a Euro-Libyan partnership framework agreement can be signed and that natural relations with Libya can be preserved. Libya did not hesitate to welcome the European decision, but took pains to qualify the EU's announcement as a victory over Switzerland. "Switzerland has been defeated by this European common measure", said the Libyan Foreign Minister in a press release. The Libyan Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, even went so far on Sunday as to state that the crisis with Switzerland was not over and that his country was still calling for "international arbitration" to resolve the dispute, which arose from the arrest, in Geneva in 2008, of Hannibal Gaddafi. As a result of this affair, a Swiss national, Max Göldi, is currently serving a four-month prison sentence in Libya. (B.C./trans.fl)