On Monday 15 October, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the EU wanted to strengthen its fight against trafficking linked to Libya by better controlling the financial flows linked to the country.
"We decided, together with the ministers, to look at ways in which the national central banks in the EU member states can trace the money flows in a better way so that following money flows we can be more effective in determining who is acting on which front – be it in smuggling oil, arms, human beings – which is having an impact on the financing of militias or political or military fights”, Mogherini stated at the end of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.
She added that the ministers had examined the way in which the EU, with its member states, could increase its support for the consolidation of the ceasefire and the implementation of security arrangements. "We have some instruments in place already on the security front", namely Operation Sophia, EUBAM (the EU Border Assistance Mission, in Libya), and a liaison (and planning) cell (EULPC) that is working on the security situation and conditions, Mogherini stated.
The EU would also like to do more to support the political process "in the weeks and months to come", she added. Mogherini also said that the presidential and parliamentary elections should take place as soon as possible, but with the right security and political framework – in other words, with "a legal framework that makes it clear for what the Libyans are going to vote, with the constitutional framework if possible". At the end of May, in Paris, the Libyan political actors were involved in organising elections on 10 December (see EUROPE 12030), but the situation in the country does not make this date very credible.
Although a diplomat last week spoke of the tension between Italy and France on the subject of Libya, Mogherini underlined the unity of the 28 EU member states. "The message that comes out of the foreign ministers' meeting today on Libya is a message of unity and of determination to work even more to support a Libyan-found solution to the situation in the country under UN auspices", she said, adding that "all the member states" support the upcoming conference in Palermo in mid-November. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)