European union foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels for talks on how to implement a peace process in Libya and what exact role the bloc should play. Italy and Greece said they’re willing to send troops, while Germany has also expressed interest in an EU-mission.
top on the ministers’ agenda are: Relaunching EU naval patrols in the Mediterranean to enforce arms embargo and possibly dispatching troops under EU-flagged mission to monitor longer-term ceasefire.
The European Union’s foreign ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday for talks on how to implement a peace process in Libya — and what exact role the bloc should play.
The meeting follows on the heels of a Libya summit in Berlin on Sunday, where the EU vowed to do whatever was necessary to implement a United Nations arms embargo and any ceasefire.
According to a Deutsche Welle report, the foreign ministers are trying to achieve
- To enforce the arms embargo, the EU is considering relaunching naval patrols in the Mediterranean Sea under Operation Sophia.
- Troops could be dispatched under an EU-flagged mission to monitor any longer-term cease-fire.
- Greece and Italy said they would be willing to send troops, while Germany said it would consider taking part in an EU mission.
‘Someone has to monitor it’
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said he supported reviving the EU’s naval mission off the Libyan coast, saying that the EU needs to do more to defend its interests.
“It’s clear that the arms embargo requires high level control and if you want to keep the ceasefire alive someone has to monitor it,” Borrell said Monday when asked about a possible military mission.
Despite the agreements secured during the summit in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas cautioned that it would not lead to an immediate halt in fighting and that the issue still needs to be discussed in the UN Security Council.
“In this respect, yesterday was only the starting signal that the civil war in Libya could be turned into a political process,” Maas told reporters.
What was agreed in Berlin? World leaders at the summit in Berlin agreed to uphold a UN arms embargo and to end military backing for the country’s warring factions. Foreign powers like Turkey, Russia, France and Egypt agreed to stop interfering in the conflict in Libya.
