A new EU mission, including ships and aircraft, will be launched to monitor the UN arms embargo against Libya. The foreign ministers have unanimously reached a political agreement on this, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after consultations in Brussels.
The details of this new maritime mission will be developed in the coming weeks, so that a formal decision can be made in just over a month. Borrell hopes the mission can start by the end of March. According to him, many member states have offered to provide ships. "We will act if weapons are smuggled by sea."
Last month, the ministers pledged to commit to monitoring the arms embargo, which has been systematically violated for many years by all warring parties. Despite calls for a ceasefire, fighting in Libya continues actively. How to address arms trafficking overland remains unclear.
A previous EU naval operation in the area was a mission aimed at combating human smugglers. The EU ministers no longer support that plan due to fears it would increase migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat themselves.
To alleviate those concerns, the naval vessels in the new military mission will operate further east of Libya, away from migration routes. The EU ministers want to prevent the mission from encouraging migrants to cross by boat. The deployed ships will withdraw if there is a sharp increase in the number of migrants at sea.
Libya is in chaos after the 2011 revolution that ousted dictator Moammar al-Gaddafi. The oil-rich country has two rival governments: the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and the other based in the eastern city of Tobruk, allied with General Khalifa Haftar.