The Palermo summit on Libya ended without any real progress on Tuesday 13 November.
In the final statement, delegations - including the EU, through the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini - welcomed the Libyan parties' commitment to prepare for spring elections.
The Libyans pledged to "undertake institutional responsibilities in order to hold a credible, peaceful, and well-prepared electoral process, underlining the importance of concluding the constitutional framework and the electoral process by Spring 2019”. They will making sure that all the required technical, legislative, political and security conditions are in place, with an increasing support by the international community from and will respect the results of these elections.
The international community urged all Libyans and Libyan institutions to “forego the use of force to settle their disputes", "adopt principles and a clear timeline for making progress in the unification of their institutions" and "commit to the democratic renewal of their elected bodies”.
Delegations expressed support to the Egyptian-led dialogue in building unified, professional and accountable military institutions, under civilian authority. Condemning the violence, they urged all parties to pursue the full and rapid establishment of the new security arrangements in Tripoli based on the redeployment of regular army and police forces with the aim to replace the armed groups.
While participants described the meeting as “a useful forum to show the unity of the international community in its support for the Libyan-controlled stabilization process”, tensions were high. Marshal Haftar did not attend either the dinner on the 12 or the plenary session on the 13, but held many meetings. Turkey left the conference outraged at not having been invited to participate in an informal meeting of the main actors of the Libyan crisis, held on the margins of the summit.
“The Libyan political transition is a long process and each meeting of the Libyan parties, each dialogue can help to resolve certain issues, step by step, to ultimately contribute to the democratic transition that the Libyan people are demanding", said the EEAS spokesperson, quoting Ms Mogherini. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)