Riga, 09/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union could take the first measures to help Libya during the Foreign Affairs Council on 16 March.
“If the political process begins and leads to a certain starting point in Libya, the international community, and first of all the European Union, will be ready to bring all the support needed. We will return for the initial decisions or the initial assessments in ten days' time following the dialogue process (policy under way in Morocco)”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini at the informal Council in Riga on Friday 6 March. “We began to speak about the EU's possible contribution in agreement with the United Nations and other Arab countries, in order to bring support to any political agreement that could come about during the dialogue. All forms of support are envisaged - including missions or operations that will be subject to consideration in the days to come”, Mogherini stated. The Latvian minister for foreign affairs, Edgards Rinkevics, added that the EU could not “exclude common security and defence policy instruments either”.
In Mogherini's view, any mandate for a possible EU mission should first be subject to an agreement with Libya, if there is a national government “or something that resembles it”. “Everything must be done according to the needs, requests, modalities and timing with the Libyans first, with the United Nations and with the main Arab actors”. “We must be sure that this is something politically useful and not just logistically useful”, she added. Mogherini mentioned monitoring a ceasefire, if there was one, or protecting key infrastructure.
However, for this, a Libyan intermediary is needed. Mogherini thus again encouraged the parties holding the dialogue to continue their efforts. After meeting the UN special representative Bernardino Leon with the ministers, Mogherini said that “the outcome of the state of the discussions was quite encouraging, even if the process was going to be long and difficult”. “The discussions are being held and are moving forward, and this is already a positive sign”, she added. The European Union is supporting the discussions in Rabat financially - up to €100,000.
Elsewhere, a meeting of the heads of Libyan companies took place in Brussels on Monday 9 March. “Trust must be created in the country, starting with through civil society”, Mogherini said. She also stated that a meeting of municipal authorities would be organised as soon as possible. “We plan this meeting to accompany the political process at the political level”, she said. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)