Luxembourg, 18/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On his arrival at the Council in Luxembourg on Monday 18 April, the French Foreign Minister, recently returned from Libya, stressed that the “Libyan government must be given every chance to succeed”. Along with many of his opposite numbers, Ayrault has assured the Libyan government of national unity of his support, explaining that giving the government the means to succeed was an important matter at the Council meeting he was attending and which was still underway as we went to press.
European support is to be discussed in the evening of Monday 18 April, at a working session between the European foreign ministers and defence ministers, in a video conference with Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and then over dinner.
On his arrival, the French minister stressed that the government “absolutely” needs to “be able to get to work under the best possible security conditions”. He said that political support for the Libyans, including the Parliament, but also the international community, was “vital to ensure stability in Libya, the safety of the Libyans, but also the safety of the borders”. Ayrault also stressed the issue of migration and the fight against smugglers and traffickers of weapons, and the fight against Daesh. Furthermore, the head of French diplomacy said that “Libya needs emergency support, to organise its security and police forces and reorganise its army, border guards and coastguards”. The Europeans could set in place a civil CSDP mission for the reform of its security and justice sector and the EU could reactivate its border assistance mission, EUBAM, currently in Tunisia.
Upon her arrival at the Council, the High Representative for Foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, said that the EU is working to “identify concrete projects in different fields” that are priorities for the Libyan people: “on the economic, on the political and on the security side”.
The Dutch Foreign Minister, Bert Koenders, however, showed caution, warning that although a number of elements were being prepared “the most important thing is not to do anything counter-productive”. According to several sources, it is vital for the Libyan population to support the actions of its government.
In further proof of European support, the heads of Italian, German, French and British diplomacy have all visited Tripoli in recent days. Their Spanish colleague is to do the same shortly. For her own part, Mogherini has not yet announced a visit. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)