EU approves sanctions, discussing no-fly zone

The EU yesterday gave the green light to the imposition of sanctions against the Libyan regime to pressure Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to resign and avoid a full-blown civil war.

The sanctions – which include an arms embargo, a travel ban on Col Gaddafi, members of his family and close aides, and a freeze on their assets – were rubber-stamped during a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels. Malta was represented by Minister George Pullicino.

The sanctions had been agreed upon informally last Friday following discussions at an ambassadorial level of the EU’s Political and Security Committee.

The EU’s approval of sanctions yesterday follow the first set of sanctions approved at UN level over the weekend.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, made it a point to highlight the fact that the EU was already discussing the sanctions before the UN’s decision.

“The crisis in Libya and the events that have unfolded in North Africa and the Middle East require a comprehensive and a coordinated response. We can’t act in isolation and I’ve always said that the international community is much more effective if it operates together,” she said.

Asked whether the EU was mulling the idea of imposing a no-fly zone on Libya, together with Nato and the UN, Ms Ashton said nothing was being excluded at this stage.

“This is an issue being discussed. There is no decision yet being made on it. As you can imagine it’s quite a complex issue, so it is part of the ongoing discussions,” she said.

EU diplomats yesterday told The Times that although the sanctions were not expected to start “biting” soon, the EU had passed on a clear diplomatic message to Col Gaddafi that “his time is up”.

On the humanitarian side, Brussels said it was getting increasingly worried as according to the latest information some 100,000 people, including thousands of Libyans, had already fled the country through its Tunisian and Egyptian borders.

Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said “the battle for Tripoli is on top of the Commission’s worries” as this may leave thousands of victims and a massive flow of Libyans trying to cross over to the EU by sea, either to Malta or Italy.

She said in this case, burden sharing from the other EU member states was essential.

According to Ms Georgieva, out of 10,000 EU citizens in Libya at the start of the crisis, some 650 were left in the country by yesterday.