Brussels, 23/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 23 March, the United Nations (UN) special representative for Libya, Bernardino Leon, announced that work on forming a national unity government in Libya could begin this week at the political process being held in Morocco.
“The political track in Morocco is progressing well. We could start this week, if things go well, to work on the unity government”, Leon stated, ahead of a meeting in Brussels bringing together 34 mayors and local Libyan representatives.
“There is a chance, we can make progress and have first names for a unity government this week. This is going to be difficult discussions and I would not like to have expectations to be too high bearing in mind how difficult the situation is on the ground, but there is a possibility and we will do our best to reach there by the end of this week”, Leon added. He said that if this happened, the EU would be a key political partner for Libya from an economic, financial and energy point of view.
Important role of local authorities. Leon also announced that in the coming days he was going to propose, with the international community, that there be a council of local authorities among the key institutions of the future governance of Libya. “This is not about measures for building trust and basic services, but key institutions which must get Libya out of this mess and of this war. Together with the legislative power and the executive power, we will propose a council of local authorities and that it plays a key role”, he said. Leon added that he believed the group of mayors and local representatives meeting in Brussels was a “fantastic starting point” for this council.
In the view of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the meeting of the mayors and local representatives can bring strong support for the political process to have a positive outcome. She also reiterated that the EU had a €3 million programme to support the local authorities and that it was possible to explore other means, such as twinning between European and Libyan towns. The meeting, organised as part of the Libyan political dialogue led by the UN, continues on Tuesday 24 March.
The UN-led political dialogue process consists of 5 tracks: political, municipalities, security, political parties and tribal. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)