Riga, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 March, the EU's foreign ministers informally discussed “concrete measures that the EU and the member states could take from the moment when the dialogue, the process led (…) to results”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
“We will have to be ready to bring our support plan to any type of national reconciliation in order to avoid Libya falling into a lack of referral authority”, she said. “We are ready to help in rebuilding the country through all means possible”, she added, stating that there was little time left as the terrorist threat was becoming stronger.
On arriving at the Gymnich, Spain's foreign minister José Garcia-Margallo said he was “absolutely convinced” that the conflict in Libya should be resolved “quite quickly” because “the continuation of the conflict can have a disastrous impact on the countries in the region”.
The Europeans highlighted the political process under way. The dialogue between the Libyan parties resumed in Morocco on 5 March. “We will first have to try to highlight the steps for a political dialogue. Because if we can advance in Libya, it's first through political dialogue. And to avoid extremist groups taking an ever greater hold in the country”, said Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders. “We must give peace a chance because we are convinced that the solution is political, not military”, added Garcia-Margallo. France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, highlighted action on the political level - and also on the humanitarian, security and immigration levels.
Questioned about the delivery of weapons to Libya, Reynders said that this was “not on the agenda”. “We must first highlight the political process and of course if we truly reached an inclusive government, we could begin to work on the security measures too”, he said. Fabius reiterated that there were “already many weapons in Libya”.
Reynders and Garcia-Margallo have currently sidelined the idea of autonomous European sanctions. “It is true that if the mediation does not result in the successful formation of a national unity government within a reasonable period of time, at an opportune time, a plan B should be studied for imposing sanctions on those who torpedo and hinder the peace process”, Garcia-Margallo stated. Reynders said that it was “still not” in the phase of sanctions. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)