Brussels, 05/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 5 October, the European Commission announced that it had reached a cooperation agreement with Libya to help the Libyan government combat illegal immigration to the EU and also to boost refugees' rights. The agreement was reached during an official visit to the country by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and European Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle. A spokesperson for Cecilia Malmström, Michele Cercone, said that the agreement was an extremely important stage because it introduces genuine, tangible cooperation between the two sides.
The spokesperson added that both sides had agreed on a raft of cooperation measures like border control, protection of refugees and tackling human trafficking. EU funding of €50 million will be available for the 2011-2013 period to help the Libyan government put the agreement into practice, explained the spokesperson, pointing out that the money would not go to the Libyan government but would be spent by the Commission on tangible projects.
The agreed programme covers a range of issues from border security to the protection of immigrants, via mobility between Libya and the EU and to greater cooperation with other countries in Africa from which illegal immigrants hail. It has been decided that Libya will set up a system for monitoring respect of refugees' rights in line with international standards, like the 1969 African Unity Organisation convention covering refugee problems in Africa. Libya is a signatory to the convention but has not yet ratified it. The Commission is not calling for Libya to sign up to the Geneva Convention on the fate of refugees, however, which confers far more rights on refugees. The Commission has agreed to provide training, technical aid and equipment so that Libya can improve its refugee protection capacity. The Commission will also help with housing problems for asylum seekers and voluntarily returned illegal immigrants. The two sides agreed to set up an informal group of high-ranking officials from Libya, the Commission and member countries of the EU and the African Union to put the various initiatives into practice. During the two commissioners' visit, Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, repeated his request for €5 billion a year from the EU to put a final stop, as he put it, to illegal immigration to the EU on boats setting sail from Libya, reported Libyan news agency Jana on Tuesday. The Commission says this is going too far, but the demand was made official by the Libyan leader, Colonel Mouammar Kadhafi, at the end of August 2010 during a visit to Italy. The Italian government does not approve of the amount demanded, but wants the question to be discussed at an EU-Africa summit planned for November, which will be held in Libya. (B.C./transl.fl)