The EU has spent billions of euros trying to cosy up to authoritarian regimes across North Africa, as part of its efforts to limit migration and build relations on counter-terrorism and security. But now it appears, in Libya and Morocco at least, that the EU has been Trumped.
Libya has been split for more than a decade since stalemate in the country’s civil war led to rival administrations being formed in the capital Tripoli – home to the government recognised by most of the international community – and in Benghazi in eastern Libya, run with the support of the Libyan National Army led by warlord general Khalifa Haftar. But in recent months the two sides have agreed a unified budget – the first since 2014 – and now roadmap towards elections next February.
On Friday (26 June), the ‘Libya National Initiative’ held a press conference at the Press Club in Brussels to “present a credible pathway forward, moving Libya from crisis management to solution making, and towards the election of a new executive authority.”
It added that “Libya’s stability is inseparable from the broader stability of the Mediterranean region, and the European Union has a strong and direct interest in a peaceful, stable and unified Libya.”
