EU Council conclusions on Libya

3106th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Coun­cil meet­ing, Brus­sels, 18 July 2011
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“1. Firm­ly com­mit­ted to the full imple­men­ta­tion of UNSCRs 1970 and 1973, the EU remains unwa­ver­ing in its com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing Libyan civil­ians, includ­ing through the inten­si­fi­ca­tion of pres­sure on the Kad­hafi regime.

2. The EU con­demns the grave vio­la­tions of human rights and the breach­es of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law per­pe­trat­ed by the regime. It reit­er­ates the impor­tance of account­abil­i­ty, jus­tice and the need to fight against impuni­ty. It takes note of the deci­sion of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court’s Pre-Tri­al Cham­ber I on 27 June to issue arrest war­rants against Muam­mar Kad­hafi, Saif al Islam Kad­hafi and Abdul­lah al-Sanus­si in con­nec­tion with alleged crimes against human­i­ty in Libya and calls for full co-oper­a­tion with the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court. It also wel­comes the exten­sion of the man­date of the Inter­na­tion­al Com­mis­sion of Inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council.

Kad­hafi has lost all legit­i­ma­cy and must relin­quish pow­er imme­di­ate­ly. Not­ing con­tin­u­ing defec­tions from the Kad­hafi regime, the EU calls on its remain­ing fol­low­ers to dis­as­so­ci­ate them­selves from its crimes.

3. The EU remains con­cerned about the human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion. It is pur­su­ing its efforts to deliv­er human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance to all Libyans and peo­ple in need in an impar­tial and nondis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner and calls for unlim­it­ed human­i­tar­i­an access in west­ern Libya and full respect of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law. If request­ed by UN OCHA, the EU will con­duct a CSDP oper­a­tion “EUFOR Libya” to sup­port human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance in the region. 

4. The EU wel­comes the com­mit­ment expressed once more by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty at the Con­tact Group meet­ing held in Istan­bul on 15 July to sup­port the Libyan peo­ple in their ongo­ing tran­si­tion process, from the Kad­hafi era and towards the cre­ation of a unit­ed, sov­er­eign and demo­c­ra­t­ic Libyan state. In par­tic­u­lar the EU endors­es the shared and over­ar­ch­ing prin­ci­ples iden­ti­fied to guide efforts towards a polit­i­cal tran­si­tion, as well as the com­mon approach to sup­port­ing the Libyan peo­ple in rebuild­ing their coun­try. To that end, the EU wel­comes the pre­sen­ta­tion by the NTC of their plans for the post-con­flict stage.

5. The EU is ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing shape the con­di­tions for a mon­i­tored cease-fire linked to a gen­uine and inclu­sive polit­i­cal process clear­ly com­mit­ted to nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and to the uni­ty of post-Kad­hafi Libya. Under the lead­er­ship of the UN and with UNSG Spe­cial Envoy for Libya as focal point, the EU will pur­sue its work with oth­er inter­na­tion­al and region­al part­ners, notably the Cairo Group, which brings the EU togeth­er with the UN, the Arab League, the African Union, the Orga­ni­za­tion of the Islam­ic Coop­er­a­tion. In this regard, the EU acknowl­edges the use­ful con­tri­bu­tion made by the African Union at the July 2011 Mal­abo Summit.

6. The EU con­sid­ers the NTC as a legit­i­mate polit­i­cal inter­locu­tor. It acknowl­edges the essen­tial role and respon­si­bil­i­ties of the NTC as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the aspi­ra­tions of the Libyan peo­ple, includ­ing for the tran­si­tion process. As such, the EU wel­comes the vis­it to the EU insti­tu­tions, on 13–14 July, of the Chair­per­son of the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Nation­al Tran­si­tion­al Coun­cil (NTC), Mr. Mah­moud Jib­ril. The EU acknowl­edges the urgent finan­cial needs of the NTC to allow it to serve the Libyan peo­ple. The EU and Mem­ber States will con­tin­ue to explore all options in that respect, includ­ing, where pos­si­ble, through the use of Libyan frozen funds, inter alia as a guar­an­tee for pro­vid­ing finan­cial assis­tance, and the resump­tion of exports, in com­pli­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the rel­e­vant UNSCRs. Recall­ing the com­mit­ments made by the NTC in its “Road to Demo­c­ra­t­ic Libya”, the EU also stands ready to pro­vide fur­ther assis­tance to the NTC in order to enable it to assume its respon­si­bil­i­ties, includ­ing uphold­ing the rule of law through­out the areas under its con­trol. In this con­text, the NTC must also con­tin­ue its com­mit­ment to address alleged vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al law, includ­ing of human rights.

7. The EU is com­mit­ted to sup­port the emer­gence of a new, sta­ble, pros­per­ous, sov­er­eign and demo­c­ra­t­ic Libya through a peace­ful, trans­par­ent and inclu­sive tran­si­tion process. The EU is already imple­ment­ing activ­i­ties in sup­port of the Libyan civ­il soci­ety, and is prepar­ing fur­ther assis­tance includ­ing for human rights defend­ers, youth, women, local author­i­ties and media. The EU under­lines the impor­tance of the UN-led sup­port of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty for Libya in the weeks and months fol­low­ing a cease-fire. The tran­si­tion should be a Libyan­driv­en process to which the EU will con­tribute togeth­er with key part­ners as soon as con­di­tions allow.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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