The European Ministers for Foreign Affairs were unable to agree on Irene, the new mission to monitor compliance with the arms embargo on Libya (see EUROPE 12450/21), during their EU Council meeting held as a videoconference on Monday 23 March.
“There has been a lot of progress, but there are still some outstanding issues”, acknowledged the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, at the end of the videoconference. At the EU Council meeting held on 17 February, out of which came political accord on the launch of such a mission, Mr Borrell had hoped that agreement over the mission would then be reached at the EU Council meeting on 23 March (see EUROPE 12427/4).
The High Representative was optimistic, however, and hoped that “with a little goodwill from Member States”, the remaining differences could be resolved “in the next few days” and that the mission would be launched at the end of March, as he had once hoped it would be in February.
According to Mr Borrell, the issue of the disembarkation of migrants, who could be recovered by vessels taking part in the operation, is still problematic.
On the other hand, the issue of the repositioning clause—also known as the snap-back mechanism—in the event of an influx of migrants, a matter which still divided the Member States back in the middle of last week, was even settled before the EU Council. “Every four months, we will look to see if there is a pull factor effect, (...) we will monitor this more closely”, explained Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, at the virtual press conference.
According to one diplomat, Member States had agreed that the authorisation to be in the area for the mission's vessels would be renewed every four months, except in the event of a pull factor effect (if the mission attracted migrants), which would have to be established unanimously and which would then lead to the withdrawal of the vessels from the area in question. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)