Coping with collateral damage

The on-going diplomatic spat between Libya and Switzerland that had been brewing for some two years erupted into an unexpected row that is causing collateral damage to innocent bystanders.

Last month, Libya stopped issuing visas to all citizens from Schengen areas, including Malta, in retaliation to Switzerland's decision to blacklist some 180 Libyans for the purposes of entry permits into Switzerland. Among the names on this blacklist, it appears, there are the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and his family.

As a neighbour with long-standing friendly relations with Libya but equally as a member of the Schengen zone, Malta is suffering innocently from this row, particularly since several Maltese citizens were denied entry visas to Libya. Some were even turned back despite holding valid documents.

To my knowledge, this is the first time - since the setting up of the Schengen zone - that such a situation has developed.

Here you have a country that is not in the EU - Libya - imposing a blanket prohibition on all EU citizens in the entire Schengen zone in retaliation to unilateral action taken by another non-EU country - Switzerland - using Schengen rules as a political instrument.

Now the Schengen area comprises 22 out of the 27 EU member states together with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. The latter was the last to join about a year ago.

Visa access to enter a Schengen country grants an individual access to the whole Schengen zone on a short-term basis. Therefore, a Schengen blacklist would notionally preclude the blacklisted individuals from travelling to all Schengen countries, including Malta.

Malta's foreign policy has long been to maintain good neighbourly relations with Mediterranean countries, such as Libya, which is an important trading partner, taking just over four per cent of our exports last year. Moreover, several Maltese travel to Libya for work or business purposes.

Cooperation with Libya is also important in the context of the fight against illegal immigration since, as we know, most migrants who arrive in Malta leave the Libyan shores.

Quite apart from the merits of why Switzerland issued its blacklist, it is clear that its unilateral action has jeopardised our interest and the interest of other Schengen countries in relation to Libya.

The question, therefore, arises as to whether the Swiss authorities acted within the law in taking this unilateral action and, if they did, whether the rules should be changed to avoid technical visa rules from being used for overtly political ends.

When I raised these two specific questions with the European Commission some days ago, the European Commission Director of Immigration and Borders, Jean-Louis de Brouwer, made it clear that, according to the Commission, Switzerland was within its rights at law. However, in reply to my second question, he did indicate - and this was reported in the international press - that once the Libyan-Swiss crisis is over, it would be necessary to think about how to review the "vague" criteria of the Schengen Convention, which allowed Switzerland to act in the way it did.

Indeed, there is a lesson to be learnt here.

Schengen members must be prevented from taking unilateral actions without consulting the other member states. Without this safeguard, countries like Switzerland - which is not an EU member state to boot - would have a carte blanche to take unilateral action with significant political implications on fellow Schengen member states. EU foreign policy should not be determined or influenced in this round-about way.

I will continue urging the Commission to seek a permanent solution in this regard.

Last week, in Strasbourg I raised this issue in the Chamber urging, on separate occasions, both Commission president José Manuel Barroso as well as Commissioner Cecilia Malmström to get around to finding a solution. Both informed me that, whereas the matter was being dealt with at the highest level by the EU Spanish presidency, the Commission itself was also undertaking diplomatic efforts to get the two sides to resolve the issue.

Let us hope that their efforts prove fruitful as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, at a national level, we all know of the unstinting efforts of the Maltese authorities - notably Tonio Borg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs - to find a swift solution. His efforts are indeed praiseworthy, not least for their level-headedness, ignoring as he did ridiculous calls for unilateral action or that Malta must leave the Schengen zone, which is so beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Maltese citizens who travel from Malta to Schengen countries each year.

Calls for unilateral action should be treated with suspicion as they do not lead to any solution, let alone a faster one. They are only short-term populist propaganda. If we consider that Switzerland was wrong in taking unilateral action, then we can hardly take unilateral action ourselves.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

www.simonbusuttil.eu