The government has asked Libya’s Transitional National Council to change the Libyan government’s representatives on trust funds in Malta as a way of speeding up the unfreezing of Libyan assets in Malta.
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg told The Times Business: “These frozen assets of the Libyan government are not just in accounts but in trusts, in different shapes and forms, so the question of the trust manager arises. It is important for the Transitional National Council, the new Libyan government, to change its representatives on these trust funds as that would help unfreeze its assets.”
Dr Borg said the Transitional National Council is insisting on the immediate releasing of these funds, worth €291 million and he “could understand this” but these legal difficulties are being faced by all the countries, including the US and UK.
Dr Borg added that Malta still needed a United Nations Security Council resolution to allow the unblocking of Libyan assets in Malta.
“We need a UN Security Council resolution to delist certain entities and that would make it much easier for the release of the frozen assets. As long as these remain on the ‘frozen’ list we can’t release these assets. We are exerting pressure on the Security Council members – a team from our mission to the UN is monitoring the situation – to delist certain entities such as for example the Central Bank of Libya, and that would facilitate the release of these funds,” he said.
Dr Borg said the question over assets belonging to the Gaddafi family in Malta, worth €86 million, was being looked into by the Attorney General. “The difficulty is as long as these fall under the EU and UN sanctions we can’t release them, and who do we release them to? Of course we can’t release them to members of the family and we can only release them to the new government if authorised by the UN or EU. This is much more complicated because the title holder is not the state,” he said.
Dr Borg said the unblocking of both types of Libyan assets depended on the UN Security council but the Transitional National council could change things if they changed the trust managers “and we have passed on this message to the TNC”, adding that it was in Malta’s interest to release these funds.
The Foreign Minister also said the list of EU sanctions against Libya is longer than that of the UN.
“The UN was first more geared towards arms dealing and members of the Gaddafi family. The EU even included Libyan ports, but this has now been lifted. Each country has to deal individually with the Security Council, and we, together with a group of states, are lobbying for a new Security Council resolution. It’s just a matter of time.
“We are trying to return to Libya as soon as possible, our embassy is not yet functioning, even though we never closed it. However, the new Libyan government has not yet fully moved to Tripoli, and neither has TNC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
Dr Borg highlighted that the Gaddafi family assets in Malta will remain frozen and will only be transferred to the Libyan state if authorised by the Security Council.
He added, however: “There could be local difficulties, as our constitution states you cannot expropriate the property of others.”