Switzerland denies abusing Schengen. Mifsud Bonnici meets Swiss minister

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici this morning discussed the current visa dispute between Libya and Switzerland with the Swiss Minister of Justice Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf at a meeting held in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The dispute has spilled over to all countries of the Schengen area including Malta, with Libya stopping all visas to European travellers after the Swiss blacklisted some 180 Libyan nationals.

The Swiss Minister confirmed that the Swiss government wanted an early resolution of the issue once an agreement was reached with Libya, the Home Affairs Ministry said.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici will also be raising this issue during a meeting with the Swiss Minister for the Interior, Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Switzerland's foreign minister has denied Italian accusations that it broke Schengen zone rules by imposing the visa restrictions on Libyan officials, and said Tripoli was to blame for turning the dispute into a Europe-wide problem.

In an interview with La Repubblica newspaper published today, Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said Switzerland had striven for a diplomatic solution to a long-running row with Tripoli, sparked by the brief arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son in Geneva in 2008.

Calmy-Rey said the Swiss visa restrictions were imposed last autumn following the arrest of two Swiss businessmen in Libya and did not contravene Schengen rules.

"Switzerland informed the other member states of the Schengen area about this measure. Our policy of restrictions is compatible with Schengen's rules," she told the newspaper.

"Switzerland has always tried to find a diplomatic solution to resolve the dispute with Libya. For us, the problem lies with Tripoli not Berne," she told the newspaper.

EU member states and partners in Schengen -- a borderless travel zone grouping 22 EU nations plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland -- are meeting in Brussels today in a meeting requested by Malta to discuss the problem and EU foreign ministers will take it up on Monday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday that Switzerland and Libya were close to reaching a "definitive agreement".

Frattini said after talks with his Libyan and Maltese counterparts that Tripoli would agree to release the two Swiss businessmen, provided Switzerland dropped its visa restrictions, but it had one further condition.

Libya wants Swiss authorities to investigate a leak to the press of photos of Hannibal Gaddafi in police custody following his arrest together with his pregnant wife on charges of mistreating domestic staff.