Brussels, 04/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini committed personally to the political dialogue between the Libyan parties when attending their meeting in Tunisia on Thursday 30 April. Her visit follows on from the extraordinary European Council on 23 April, which was organised following the murderous shipwrecks in the Mediterranean (see EUROPE 11301).
The aim of Mogherini's visit was to encourage the parties to work quickly towards implementing a national unity government in the coming weeks, the European External Action Service (EEAS) stated in a press release. “Urgent to find an agreement”, Mogherini tweeted. On 27 April, the United Nations support mission in Libya gave a draft peace agreement to all the participants in the inter-Libyan dialogue - a draft that must still be negotiated. Bernardino Leon, the UN special representative for Libya, said on Wednesday 29 April that the international community hoped for an agreement for the start of Ramadan - in other words for 17 June.
Underlining that it was important for the Libyans to take over in order to address the challenges the country is facing, Mogherini reiterated the EU's desire to support a new government once it is in place. During their discussions she also spoke of “the importance of the need to deal urgently with the common threat of terrorism and the fight against traffickers and smugglers (…) both for the benefit of the Libya and the EU”. Libya is the main country of departure for migrants to the EU.
After meeting Leon and the members of the liaison unit between the UN support mission in Libya and the EU, Mogherini held a series of meetings with different parties taking part in the political dialogue, under the aegis of the UN. Her visit was prepared in close collaboration with Leon. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)