European Commission appoints representative to Libya

The European Commission has appointed its first representative to Libya, signifying a further step forward towards the normalisation of relations between the EU and the North African country.

Returning from a two-day visit to Tripoli and Benghazi, External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that Marc Pierini has been accredited as the first European Commission Head of Delegation to Libya, although on a non-resident basis.

At present, the EU does not have any diplomatic relations with Libya and is also in dispute with the country over the death sentence imposed on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor over a HIV infection scandal in Benghazi children's hospital during the late 1990s.

However, during the last months, relations between the two have improved immensely especially in view of the influx of hundreds of illegal immigrants reaching the EU through Malta and Italy following their departure from Libya.

The EU is currently working with Libya to tackle the problem posed by the migration from and through Libya. An illegal immigration action plan pushed by Italy and Malta is being prepared to upgrade the management of immigration flows and to improve cooperation with the countries of origin.

In October of last year, as a gesture of goodwill, the EU decided to respond to significant developments in Libya with a new policy of engagement. Libya was invited in 1999 to join the Barcelona Process and in 2004 indicated it would join, though no formal request has been made.

During a press conference on her return to Brussels, Ms Ferrero-Waldner said that joining the Barcelona process would mean Libya possibly working with regional partners on an equal footing on political issues, access to EU technical and other assistance, the chance to participate in regional infrastructure initiatives, as well as the opportunity to work more closely with the EU under the neighbourhood policy.

Ms Ferrero-Waldner said that in talks with the highest authorities, including Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, she raised the case of Bulgarian and Palestinian medical workers and also visited them in the Tripoli prison.

She said that the EU is deeply concerned at the plight of the Bulgarian and Palestinian medical staff and underlined the EU's strong desire to see the evidence that led to the medics' conviction re-examined and that they should be released as soon as possible.

The medics have been in prison in Libya since the outbreak of HIV/Aids at the Benghazi hospital in the late 1990s. The EU has repeatedly expressed serious reservations about the basis on which they have been prosecuted and tried, their treatment in prison, and delay in the process.