EU agrees naval mission to stop Libya arms flow

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday to a naval operation to enforce an arms embargo on wartorn Libya, overcoming objections from countries who feared it may encourage new migrant flows.

The mission will be authorised to intervene to stop arms shipments, EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said, insisting the vessels would not be “having a promenade” in the Mediterranean.

The EU hopes to have the operation, focused on the eastern part of the Libyan coast, up and running by the end of March, Mr Borrell said, though many details — including the rules of engagement for naval units — are yet to be worked out.

The conflict in the oil-rich but turbulent North African state was on the agenda for EU ministers meeting in Brussels, but Mr Borrell had played down hopes of an agreement over objections from Austria and Hungary.

Making the arms embargo work is seen as crucial to stabilising the Libyan conflict, where the UN-recognised Tripoli government is under attack from the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the country’s south and east.

Military commanders will propose many of the operational details, including the number of ships and the exact geographical scope, for EU foreign ministers to approve at their next meeting on March 23.

The EU hopes the new mission — which replaces Operation Sophia, set up in 2015 to fight people smuggling across the Mediterranean at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis — will be up and running by the end of March.

Austria had led opposition to reviving Operation Sophia with ships to enforce the embargo, fearing it could reactivate a rescue fleet that would end up ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Hungary, whose government has taken a tough anti-immigration stance, is understood to have supported Austria’s objections.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg insisted the new mission was quite different from Sophia.

“There is a basic consensus that we now want a military operation and not a humanitarian mission,” Mr Schallenberg said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that there had been a long discussion about whether a naval element was needed but eventually it was agreed it was “necessary to get a complete picture”.

Crucial to winning over sceptics like Austria was a provision that if the ships are deemed to be creating a “pull factor” — encouraging migrants to take to the sea in the hopes of being rescued and taken to Europe — the maritime part of the operation will be halted.