Excerpts from SRSG for Libya Bernardino Leon’s Press Conference in Brussels, Thursday 28 May 2015

28 May 2015

Excerpts from SRSG for Libya Bernardino Leon’s Press Conference in Brussels, Thursday 28 May 2015

Thank you for this opportunity to be here today in Brussels to discuss with colleagues in the European Parliament and some important, I would say very important, Libyan representatives ... The relations between Libya and the international community and the current situation of the political process and the efforts to recover, to go back to a Libyan transition.

We have had two panels this morning, one in which we have been discussing the situation of the political process. I have explained how the United Nations is now preparing a new draft which we would like to hand to the parties the first week of June that should be a balance. The new draft should address the concerns of the parties with the need to make them understand that they will never have a draft with 100 percent of their wishes, 100 percent of their ideas will be reflected.

There will be an agreement if they understand clearly that they have to give up on important issues, that they have to be flexible and that a political agreement with concessions, even if it does not reflect the key concerns of the parties will be better than continuing this conflict that is going nowhere.

I have explained this is an effort which is not only political. There are other tracks. Let me enhance also the importance of the security track of negotiating with the different armed actors, with the army, with the armed groups, militias etc. the security arrangement. But also let me enhance the role of the international community, the United Nations and very particularly the European Union will have in the security arrangements in the future. These two elements, political and security, have to work together if we want a stable Libya which will soundly return to the democracy in the future.

The second session was about the role of the European Union, and I have explained that there no clear lines of separation between the EU and the United Nations, because we work together, we team up together and because our views are the same about Libya. It has to be a Libyan-owned process, a Libyan-Libyan solution with the support of the International community No. 1. No. 2 there is no military solution. There is no military option for Libya. It has to be a political solution through dialogue. This is the only solution, and this is in the DNA of both the United Nations and the European Union. This is why we converge so easily in this approach to Libya. And at the same time we know very well in the United Nations that Europe is the main partner historically, in trade relations, in economic relations, even politically it is a very important partner for Libya. For sure, the regional actors and especially the neighbours are playing a key role, but Europe can claim to be a political partner as important as any actor in the region. So this is clear to the United Nations. And to the same extent, we are working with the neighbours. We are working with all the regional actors. We are working very closely with the European Union. And it is the support of all these regional actors, some of them with very different views, but I have to say all of them converging today to the support to the political solution in Libya.

Will this support, will these elements of the new draft will be enough to get the agreement of everybody and reach an agreement in the coming 3, 4 weeks? Difficult to say. The situation is not easy. But definitely the idea that I would like to enhance today is that there a chance, there is a possibility … Libyans have this very clear idea that the only solution, the only alternative is this political agreement, and also that the country is running out of time. Libya is on the verge of economic and financial collapse, is facing a huge security threat because of civil war, but also, I would say more important today, because of Daesh threat. Daesh is trying to build strong bases in Libya. Libya also is facing an increasing political division with these competing institutions in the east and in the west, so all these challenges will oppose the possibility of an agreement. This is the context in which we are working, the context in which we are proposing this agreement and in three, four weeks we will see whether it is working or not.

Responding to a question about the impact of the planned military operations in the Mediterranean against the human traffickers on the political process in Libya, SRSG Leon said:

…When it comes to operating in the International Waters, this is more an international community issue and I don’t think there are special problems when it comes to the political process in Libya. The second part of it cooperation in Libyan waters. That is something in my opinion - and I think this is something the European Union, the International Community and the Security Council share - is that we should try to have the cooperation of the Libyans. Let’s remind what we are discussing today is a Unity Government and that we may see a unity government in Libya in the coming weeks if this political process succeeds. And if we have a unity government, of course, we will have the perfect partner to work together on all the challenges not only migration. Obviously, migration as I said before is a huge challenge. But even before this Unity Government is formed, we have a dialogue on confidence-building measures between different actors, not only the ones involved in the highest level in these talks, but also with municipalities and many of these municipalities participating in this process are the main ports, the main coastal cities in Libya, cities like Tobruk, Benghazi, Tripoli, Misrata and many others are involved in this dialogue. So, we have the possibility to start some cooperation in the context of the UN political process and hopefully if we have a Unity Government this cooperation will become much more important in the near future.

Watch the full press conference on this link:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20150522IPR58817/html/Gianni-PITTELLA-President-of-SD-group-28052015