The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced on Wednesday 26 August, that the European Union will see if it can do more than it is already doing to support the ceasefire announced on 21 August in Libya (see EUROPE 12544/10).
“We will be working closely with the United Nations Mission in Libya and we are ready to support this ceasefire as much as we can”, he stressed at the end of the informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Berlin.
Recalling that the EU had already launched the maritime operation EUNAVFOR MED IRINI, which contributes to compliance with the arms embargo, and its Integrated Border Management Assistance Mission to Libya (EUBAM Libya), the High Representative said the EU will see if it can do more.
Mr Borrell also revealed that the IRINI mission, which has been operational at sea since the beginning of May, had “collected information involving actors on both sides of the conflict”. It has, according to him, already conducted more than 500 hailings with vessels on the high seas and submitted 10 special reports to the United Nations Panel of Experts.
And while the mission was criticised by Turkey and the United States in particular (see EUROPE 12530/12), the High Representative considered that it had “proved its utility, value and impartiality”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)