Italy will stop applying European Union sanctions against Libya next week even if the measures are not lifted by the EU, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Friday.
”We are working to obtain a lifting of the embargo against Libya,” Pisanu told journalists, referring to an issue that Tripoli has explicitly linked to efforts to prevent illegal immigration into Europe via its Mediterranean coastline.
”We think that next week we will be able to settle the problem, that is to say get the embargo lifted,” Pisano said, referring to upcoming EU talks in Brussels.
However, he added that if Italy’s EU partners are not unanimous in wanting to lift the measures, Italy will do so unilaterally under a rule that allows such actions if a country is facing an urgent problem.
Libya earlier warned that it will be unable to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe from its territory unless the EU lifts the sanctions.
”We will be unable to carry out controls as long as Libya is subject to an EU embargo,” Libyan Interior Minister Nasser al-Mabruk told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Pointing out that his country’s borders range more than 6 000km, including 2 000km of shoreline, al-Mabruk said surveillance would require helicopters, aircraft, radar and other material that Tripoli is unable to acquire because of the embargo.
Sanctions were imposed against Libya in the late 1980s because of its role in state-sponsored terrorism, including the 1986 Lockerbie bombing. They were partially eased last year, paving the way for Tripoli to compensate the victims’ families.
Italy on Monday asked Libya to take tougher measures to prevent illegal migrants leaving its shores after a record total of 650 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa at the weekend.
On Tuesday, Italy’s new EU commissioner, Rocco Buttiglione, called on the EU to offer Libya equipment to stem the flow of illegal migrants moving northwards across the Mediterranean.
Al-Mabruk told Corriere della Sera that police agreements between Rome and Tripoli will not be enough to solve the problem unless they are matched by economic aid to the countries of origin of the illegal immigrants.
”We must set up development projects in the regions the immigrants come from. We must do something about the health, employment and education” of those who are thinking of leaving, he said.
The volume of migrants actually reaching Italy’s southern shores is small compared with the numbers hoping to travel there, he stressed.
”On the Libyan coast there are at least a million people … Believe me, the problem is much more urgent on our side than on yours,” he said.
The migration issue is to be discussed when he meets his Italian counterpart at the end of the month in Libya, he added. — Sapa-AFP