The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, said on Thursday 31 January that the Member States wanted to strengthen the EUNAVOR MED Operation Sophia.
“The ministers reconfirmed their intention to keep Operation Sophia and even to strengthen certain areas of the operation's actions”, she announced at the end of the informal meeting of defence ministers in Bucharest. However, Germany and Belgium recently announced that they will not make any physical resources available for the operation.
But Ms. Mogherini acknowledged that the issue of the disembarkation of persons recovered by the operation's ships had not yet been resolved. Italy no longer wants its ports to be used to disembark these people and no solution has yet been found. According to the High Representative, this is a subordinate issue. "Since July, only 106 people have been rescued by ships from the operation”, she said.
“This is an element that requires Member States to work on solutions, but it is neither the mandate nor the main task of the mission”, she recalled. “Consensus must be reached to allow the operation to continue”, the High Representative added. “We will try to find a solution, because we are obviously in favour of the idea that we can continue to intervene, especially to fight trafficking, which was the initial objective of the mission”, Belgian Minister Didier Reynders told EFE and EUROPE. According to him, developing the integration of European defence requires medium- and long-term projects, but also by finding “solutions for operations such as Operation Sophia”.
According to a European source, discussions on the issue of disembarkations are not progressing. This is one of the reasons why Mrs Mogherini wanted to discuss the operation at the informal ministerial meeting, in order to verify the positions of the Member States.
If the operation continues, the training aspect of the Coast Guard could be strengthened. A total of 325 coastguards and Libyan navy personnel have already been trained, Mogherini said. Mr. Reynders confirmed to Belgian media that the mandate of the operation could be modified in order to move towards a transfer of responsibilities to the Libyans. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)