Brussels, 28/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the week, the EU might, at the request of France, hold a special European Council devoted to the crisis in Libya. The decision will be left to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. On Monday 28 February, the EU Council of Ministers adopted a decision which will allow the 27 member states of the EU to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1970, which was passed two days previously in New York. This resolution imposes a number of sanctions on the regime of Colonel Gaddafi: - an embargo on the supply of arms to Libya; - the freezing of the assets of Gaddafi and five members of his family; - a visa ban on Gaddafi and 15 members of his family and close circle.
Additional sanctions. The EU decision also contains “accompanying measures” which go further than those of the UN resolution. The EU has imposed an embargo on the sale of equipment (such as tear gas) which could be used against demonstrators and opponents of the regime. The EU decided, too, to widen the other sanctions to people not listed by the UN: 10 additional people who have been close to Gaddafi have had their assets frozen by the EU, and 20 more people have been denied entry to the EU. The visa bans came into force immediately, but the other restrictive measures will apply from the date of their publication in the Official Journal of the EU, in the coming days.
The option of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya remains on the table, but a decision of this kind would have to be taken by the UN, not the EU, stated Catherine Ashton's spokeswoman on Monday. The UN resolution also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation in Libya and to investigate if those responsible for the repression should be charged with crimes against humanity. The EU welcomed this decision. It is essential that “those responsible must be held to account”, Ashton stated at the ministerial meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
Contact with the transitional Libyan authorities. Even though it has no representation on the ground in Libya, the EU is currently “establishing contact” with the transitional Libyan authorities put in place by the opponents of the regime of Muanmar Gaddafi, Ashton's spokeswoman confirmed. On Sunday, the anti-Gaddafi forces, which hold several Libyan towns under their control, named Gaddafi's former justice minister as the head of a provisional government, based in Benghazi. “Yes, we are trying to establish contact with the transitional Council. It's an on-going operation”, the spokeswoman said. This proves that the EU wants to support the people and “clearly” means that it has broken all relations with the Gaddafi regime, she added.
Extraordinary European Council? On Sunday 27 February, French President Sarkozy requested that a special European Council be convened so that the EU could “adopt a common strategy to deal with the Libyan crisis, the consequences of which could be very serious indeed for the stability of the whole region”. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy is considering the French request. France is pressing for a summit at the end of the week “on Thursday or Friday”, and, in this, is thought to have the support of Italy and Spain. Catherine Ashton, too, backs the initiative. (H.B./transl.rt)