The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, warned on Sunday 20 June, during a visit to Lebanon, that the EU was ready to take measures to encourage the political class to take responsibility and enact the necessary reforms.
“We are very concerned by the current economic and political crises that Lebanon is facing”, the High Representative emphasised, calling it an “domestic crisis”, a “self-imposed crisis”, and a “home-made crisis”.
He called on leaders to take responsibility and adopt the necessary measures “without more delay”. “A government must be formed and key reforms implemented immediately”, he emphasised.
Mr Borrell said he did not understand why, 9 months after the designation of a Prime Minister, there is still no government in Lebanon. He added that the elections scheduled for 2022 should be held on schedule.
The High Representative also warned that only an urgent agreement with the International Monetary Fund will save the country from financial collapse. “There is no time to waste. You are at the edge of a financial collapse”, he insisted. He said that once the programme is in place, the EU will be able to look at concessional lending and guarantees, provide trade measures and a macro-financial assistance programme.
The EU is ready to help Lebanon, Borrell pledged, provided that the country makes progress with its reforms. “We have the resources and the willingness to help more. But in order to help more, we need the process of reforms to continue, to accelerate and to be able to overcome the current situation”, he added. The High Representative noted that in 2020, the EU had provided €333 million to the country.
Conversely, “if there is further obstruction to solutions to the current multi-dimensional crisis in the country, we will have to consider other courses of action, as some Member States have proposed. The Council of the European Union has been discussing options, including targeted sanctions”, Borrell warned.
“Sanctions are on the table, we are discussing them, but there is nothing decided and I wish there was no need to make a decision”, he added.
According to a document seen by Reuters, the EU’s approach would focus on four criteria that would justify sanctions: obstructions to establishing a government, the political process or the success of the political transition, obstruction of the implementation of urgent reforms required to overcome the political, economic and social crisis, financial malpractice/mismanagement of public finances and the banking sector, and any violations of human rights as a result of the economic and social crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)