On Monday, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani said that “halting the flow of illegal migrants across the Mediterranean is mainly linked to the improvement of the situation in Libya and Tunisia.”
The Italian news agency, Aki quoted Tajani as saying, “Stopping migration flows does not only include preventing the arrival of these ‘death boats’, but also by helping the countries suffering from massive crises, especially Tunisia, which suffers a financial crisis, and achieving stability in Libya.”
He confirmed that they have “made great efforts at all levels to achieve security and stability in Libya.” He expressed Italy’s desire to “involve all influential countries in Libyan affairs to contribute to the establishment of peace and stability in the country.”
The FM indicated that “if the situation in Libya stabilizes, this will reflect positively on the security of North Africa as a whole, and the countries south of the Sahara.”
Tajani added that Rome was considering “concluding bilateral agreements with some countries, to encourage the return of illegal immigrants.”
He expressed his understanding of the crises facing immigrant countries of origin, such as famines, wars, and earthquakes, explaining that “Italy is working on a great plan for the development of Africa.”
Last week, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily announced his plan to advance the political process and pave the way for holding Presidential and legislative elections in 2023.
Bathily said that the political process “remains protracted and falls short of the aspirations of the Libyan people, who seek to elect their leaders and reinvigorate their political institutions. In short, Libyans are impatient. They question the will and desire of the current interim political actors to hold inclusive and transparent elections in 2023.”
During his speech, Bathily stated that the Parliament adopted the 13th Constitutional Amendment to the 2011 Constitutional Declaration. “This amendment is yet to be endorsed by the High State Council (HCS).”
Italy remains the closest European country to Libya in geographical and political terms. The instability that followed the death of former leader Muammar Gaddafi continues to have drastic consequences for Italy.
Since the 1970’s, Libya has been an important supplier of energy to Italy, and the two countries are connected by the Greenstream gas pipeline, directly from the coast near Tripoli to Sicily. Before the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Libya supplied almost a third of Italy’s hydrocarbon needs, but this share has gradually decreased due to the instability in the country.
This might have been tolerable before the conflict in Ukraine, but now the crisis in Libya has the potential to have extraordinary costs for Rome.
