Debate: Situation in Libya
Date: TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: ES

Pero nos pasamos el día condenando ataques. Y el coste humano de esta guerra por delegación está empezando a ser insoportable para el pueblo libio. Bueno, hace tiempo que es insoportable. Hay trescientas cincuenta mil personas desplazadas en el entorno de Trípoli, miles de combatientes, trescientos civiles muertos, ataques a hospitales, incluyendo personal sanitario y ambulancias, doscientas cincuenta escuelas cerradas. The war has been fuelled by several external players sending more weapons and mercenaries every day. It is no longer the war without warriors, as it was called at the beginning – a war without warriors. No – now there are a lot of warriors coming from many different countries, and it has become expanding and escalating, augmenting the risk of terrorism, regional instability, migration in our borders. The United Nations special envoy, Mr Salamé, came on Friday to the Foreign Affairs Council, and he said that no other conflict ever saw a gap between nice words and helpful actions so wide as in Libya. Since April, the United Nations Security Council met 15 times to discuss about Libya and failed 15 times to call for a ceasefire. The Security Council: 15 times. But as I said, there is hope that a ceasefire maybe can enter into force. We hoped it was going to enter into force yesterday, but this morning we knew that there was no agreement in Moscow and that General Haftar left Moscow without giving his agreement to this ceasefire. We have been repeating many times that the Europeans have to overcome our divisions, our rivalries, and that we have to be more united in order to face the situation. Germany is about to announce (I don’t know if it has already formally announced – there were some rumours that it was going to be announced today, but I don’t know exactly) if there is a formal call for the Berlin Conference for next Sunday, after months of preparations, in which we have actively taken part. It should give way to a roadmap for the consolidation of the ceasefire, de-escalation and a return to political negotiations. This could be a good occasion. The Special Envoy was coming here on Friday, Prime Minister Sarraj of the internationally-recognised government was in Brussels. He visited President Sassoli and President Michel; we passed the same message. It was impossible to have a meeting with the other party, with General Haftar. We have been talking with several regional colleagues – Egyptian, Russian and Turkish counterparts. Everybody seems at least a bit concerned that things in Libya are getting out of control. But I cannot assure you that the ceasefire will take place and that the Berlin Conference will take place next Sunday. At the last Foreign Affairs Council, I called for talks about Libya and Iran. We strongly supported the Berlin process. We tried to travel to Libya, but it was not possible due to security reasons; I wonder if it was really for security reasons or there was a lack of will to receive us. The fact is that we had to meet here in Brussels, where we had the visit of Sarraj but not the one from Haftar. Now we have a mandate from the Foreign Affairs Council to strongly engage with all parties. If there is a ceasefire, and if there is an agreement on the framework of the Berlin process, then we will have to deal with monitoring the ceasefire and effectively controlling the arms embargo. But I wonder who is going to do that seriously. We are spending a lot of money in Libya: more than 630 million in cooperation in the last five years. The African Union-United Nations agencies have been able to evacuate more than 5 000 people needing international protection and sent over 50 000 migrants back home voluntarily, with reintegration support. But there are 700 000 sub—Saharan people in Libya. Not all of them want to go to Europe; most of them have a job and a livelihood, and they prefer to stay in Libya as far as the conditions allow them to do so. But if the situation becomes worse and it is impossible for them to stay in Libya, maybe they can try to go to Europe. So there is another threat of a push of illegal migration through the central Mediterranean, where the Turks and the Russians are taking the lead. Six months ago in the central Mediterranean these two actors were not present, but today they take the lead, and this is a big change in the geopolitical structure in the Mediterranean basin. Six months ago we Europeans were more or less active but we were alone. Now, we are still more or less active – more active today then six months ago – but in fact the Russians and the Turks are having a strong leverage because they have engaged militarily on the ground. Not directly, not through the regular army, but everybody knows that the flow of arms is increasing, and Libya is a kind of cancer which has been metastasizing to Sahel. What’s happening in Sahel has a lot to do with the fact that the big amount of arms and the fighters in Libya are contaminating the whole area. Now intelligence reports tell us that a lot of Sudanese, Syrian and people coming from the Middle East are arriving in Libya to fight on one side or the other. This is the situation. Maybe we will have good news in the next 24 hours, maybe not. Maybe the Germans will call for the conference, maybe not. Maybe we are going to have a ceasefire, maybe not. I really don’t know. I hope that we will have a window of opportunity. Libya is a rich country, one of the richest countries in Africa, despite years of civil strife: rich and with a small population, only 6 million people, who could and should lead a secure and prosperous life. Instead, it is entering the ninth year of an immensely destructive and disruptive political crisis. It was never going to be easy for Libya to emerge from 40 years of an annihilating dictatorship and miraculously become a stable democracy. It was going to be difficult, we knew, but no one ever imagined a catastrophe like this – and yet it could become even worse for the Libyans, and for us, if we do not try our very best to halt this conflict and find a political solution. With the support of all Member States and of the Parliament, for sure, I really intend to do just that, hoping that this strong engagement can be part of the solution to keep Libya united and to look for a peaceful solution to this conflict, because we are saying that there is no military solution. But this mantra – there is no military solution – we have been repeating about the Syrian war. ‘There is no military solution, there is no0 military solution’ – and at the end there has been a military solution. So maybe here the same thing can happen. We Europeans, since we don’t want to participate in a military solution, we barricade ourselves in the belief that there is no military solution. In Syria there has been a military solution brought about by the Turks and the Russians, and this has changed the equilibrium in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. I cannot prevent such a thing happening, and this is something that should be of very great concern to all of us, because I’m sure nobody will be very happy if in the Libyan coast there is a ring of military bases from the Russian and Turkish navy in front of the Italian coast, controlling both routes of illegal migration towards Europe in the eastern Mediterranean and now maybe in the central Mediterranean. At this time, at this hour – 10 o’clock at night – I think we can speak frankly among all of us and deal seriously with the situation we are facing. Let’s hope that we are going to have good news in the next hours.