Brussels, 01/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The crises in Libya and other countries of North Africa will be discussed by the 27 heads of state and government of the EU at an extraordinary European Council, which Herman Van Rompuy has called for Friday 11 March in Brussels. The meeting should take place just before the summit of the 17 countries of the eurozone already scheduled for late afternoon on the same day.
No- fly zone. In the meantime, after the adoption of European sanctions against members of the Libyan regime (see yesterday's EUROPE), the member states are now considering, individually in some cases, rather than as a bloc, going further and taking additional measures to force Gaddafi to stop the violence against his own people and to leave power. The creation of a no-fly zone above Libya, which would prevent the regime from sending aircraft to repress the population, is one of the ideas raised, although the EU does not intend actively to pursue it. “All options are on the table to extend the sanctions”, but a no-fly zone would have to be decided on by the UN Security Council and not the EU, a spokesperson for Catherine Ashton explained on Tuesday 1 March. Consequently, “we have no plans for any military cooperation at EU level at this point in time”, the spokesperson stressed. “We have to wait and see what happens. The EU has adopted its sanctions and we are now looking to see these sanctions working.” The creation of a no-fly zone has the support of the United States and the United Kingdom, but other countries, such as France and Germany, are concerned that this measure would send out the “wrong signal” to the Arab world. These two countries would prefer to cut off all financial flows into Libya, so that Tripoli cannot, amongst other things, sell its stakes in European companies, explained the French minister for European affairs, Laurent Wauquiez. The German minister, Guido Westerwelle, suggested freezing payments for supplies of oil and gas “for 60 days”, to stop “the killing”. He also called for a UN special envoy to be sent to Libya “so that the international community can demonstrate its presence and be seen to stand by its commitment, and so that it can assess the humanitarian situation.”
Contact with transitional authorities. On Tuesday, Ashton's spokesperson somewhat played down Monday's reports that the EU is believed to be establishing contact with the Libyan transitional authorities set in place by opponents of the regime, most notably Benghazi. “We are open to contacts with anybody who wants to get in contact with us, but at the moment it is rather difficult to say who the opposition is, in terms of organisation”, he said. There are “no EU officials in Libya” at the moment, but only in the border regions to organise humanitarian operations.
Stefan Füle takes the blame. The commissioner for neighbourhood policy, Stefan Füle, has acknowledged that the EU has made mistakes regarding the countries of North Africa which today are in revolution. “Europe was not vocal enough in defending human rights and local democratic forces in the region. Too many of us fell prey to the assumption that authoritarian regimes guaranteed stability in the region. This was not even Realpolitik. It was, at best, short-termism - and the kind of short-termism that makes the long term ever more difficult to build”, Füle told the committee on foreign affairs of the EP on 28 February. (H.B./transl.fl)