Hurdles towards better EU-Libya ties

Libya still has some way to go towards improving ties with the European Union despite Tripoli's pledge to compensate the victims of a 1986 nightclub bombing in West Berlin, the European Commission said yesterday. The EU executive has welcomed Libya's...

Libya still has some way to go towards improving ties with the European Union despite Tripoli's pledge to compensate the victims of a 1986 nightclub bombing in West Berlin, the European Commission said yesterday.

The EU executive has welcomed Libya's decision to pay $35 million compensation to more than 160 victims of a blast at the nightclub La Belle. A German court ruled the Libyan secret service was behind the attack and convicted four people, one of them a former Libyan diplomat.

But EU Commission spokesman Stefaan De Rynck said some issues were unresolved, including a dispute over a Libyan court's death sentence for six foreign medical workers who were accused of infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus.

"The death penalty stands and that in itself is an important obstacle in the discussions with Libya," Mr De Rynck told a daily news briefing.

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