The country, Libya, is situated in the northern region of Africa.

It got independence as
kingdom in 1951 from Italy, member of European Union (EU). In 1969, a military coup
led by a military general, Mummer Gaddafi, toppled the kingdom of king Idris and
established the Republic of Libya. EU is a political, economic and regional organization
that basically consists of 27 countries of Europe. The European Union was established
by the Maastricht treaty in 1993. The treaty was designed to increase political and
economic integration in Europe.

The dynamic of Libya is quite unique among the countries in the vicinity of Europe.
Libya is the main oil producing state, comparatively higher social and economic
standard and rich resources in the region, Africa, was attracted many poor resource
European states. In contrast, diplomatic relations of Brussels with Tripoli has been
estranged for long time by Libya offensive foreign policy and controversial engagements
in many terrorist activities throughout the decade of 1980, across the world and EU in
particular.

Before independence, Libya was an Italian colony. Having gotten independence, Libya
became monarchy under the rule of king. However, the kingdom was short lived
because it was toppled in the end of 1960 by martial law organized by a young military
general, Colonel Mummer Gaddafi. He undertook to nationalize all state resources, and
ousted the European military bases remained during the independence of Libya.
Moreover, in 1976, Gaddafi expressed his political views in a book known as Green
book: rejected democratic capitalism, European values, and led Libya through a model
of anti-imperialism and pan-Arabism.

Under the umbrella of anti colonialism and pan-Arabism, Tripoli provided direct
support to different fictions of non state actors: to Palestinian, Lebanese etc. So, it was
great contribution in the destabilization of the whole region.

In Europe, Libya diplomatically and politically isolated due to its support for terrorism.
For example, Tripoli is not only supports terrorists but also its agents were connected to
the bombings that occurred in Berlin, Rome and Vienna in the era of 1980s. The United
Nation (UN) conducted sanctions led to a key political and economic isolation of Tripoli
from Brussels. Furthermore, Libya was ostracized by EU in the decade of 1990s, until it
lastly agreed to fulfill the conditions of the UN resolutions of 2003. After 9/11 attack,
Tripoli established some diplomatic and political relations with neighboring countries,
particularly with Rome. Therefore, it provided the opportunity to enhanced cooperation
in multiple fields: terrorism, organized crime and illegal immigration. After agreeing to
dismantle weapons of mass destruction, the global community including EU ended the
arms embargo on Libya. After that, the process of Libya’s reengagements with the global
community started again. Latterly, Libya was invited to join the Euro Mediterranean
Partnership conducted by Spain, but Tripoli repeatedly rejected it that was the only
exception in the whole Mediterranean region and finally turned to it as an observer
status. In practice, it was a good opportunity of investment and technological
advancement for Libya but Gaddafi’s could not brought structural reforms that could
have undermined his authoritarian and informal government rule. To ensure the
stability of the regime and to gain the loyalty of marginalized communities, Tripoli
tolerated widespread illegal economies activities. And this did not prevent Libya from
reinforcing its bilateral relations with key European Union states.

Having long negotiations, Libya signed a historic Treaty of mutual f friendship and
Cooperation with one of the EU member state, the Italy, in which Libya crucially agreed
to contribute to fighting illegal migration to Europe.

Moreover, in 2007, the external relations council of the European Union (ERCEU)
recalled the meeting to reconstruct the Brussels ties with Libya within a comprehensive
paradigm. Hence, negotiations on the Brussels-Tripoli agreement were finally launched
in 2008. The ERCEU Commission issued a Tripoli Strategy Paper and National Indicative
Program in 2009. The paper targeted many priority areas of common interest to be
enquired in the main framework agreement: to counter illegal immigration or terrorism
in the Mediterranean region, to develop Tripoli’s energy resources, to establish suitable
environment for investment, and to improve fundamental freedoms and human rights.

Meanwhile, Libya was considered as a suitable market and comparatively reliable

partner of Brussels. Therefore, Libya natural resources and political stability made it as
a key alternative for European countries for the supply of hydrocarbons and other
energies.

During that time, Libya large reserves of foreign currency and the relative population as
source made it a suitable market for European industries. When the negotiations
between EU-Libya for close cooperation established, suddenly, it interrupted by the
political turmoil of early 2011, Arab spring.

Political conflict and shifts in Libya, a resourceful African country, have extensive and
immediate impacts on European Nations. Because of this, the Brussels has long been
involved in the domestic and international affairs of Tripoli. Nation, especially the
powerful nations, in international environment behaves in such a way as to make the
changes in other (neighboring & weak) states favorable to their own interests. Africa
has long been remained a place of competition between the European states and the
East-West struggle for influence.

In the case of Libya, Brussels short term policies have always taken over the long term
strategic goals. EU policy makers have sought a solution to offer quick answers to the
dynamic of their vicinity, and perceived the illegal migration is an existential threat to
their sovereignty. Further, findings show that there exists lack of monitoring and impact
evaluation procedures across most of the Brussels crisis response initiatives in Tripoli.
This gives importance to those who support the suspicion that crisis counter strategies
are designed not to bear any meaningful impact in practice. The gap between rhetoric
and practice, however, can lead to European Union external action and crisis response
being perceived as no more than rhetorical responses but seriously concerned policy
options.

Furthermore, as discussed, EU and Libya do not have any relation or at least virtually
non-existent, with each other from 1992-1999 But were re-launched only in late 2000s.
In fact, the crisis of Libya uncovered a Pandora’s Box, which made up of a twisted
political phenomenon imbued with 42 years of authoritarian regime, upon which the EU
wants to react and to elaborate its common security and foreign policy.

The 2011 Arab-spring uprisings heavily drew EU attention to the region. The leading EU
powers, like Italy, France and Britain, in 2011, supported the uprising in the country and
played a significant role to topple the dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Since then, the
diverging interests these countries have coupled with the internal rivalries, and the
Britain’s decision to leave EU in 2016, resulted in the following inconsistent policies of
Brussels towards Tripoli. So, that largely affected Libya stature and molded its ties with
the EU. Also, the inconsistent EU policies towards the country not only protracted the
conflict but also provided an opportunity to Russia to extend its influence to the region.

Italy and France are the two main EU nations that have wider interest in Libyan politics
(external and internal)—are the main rivals in Libya. These two countries fought
together in the UN-led coalition against Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. However, currently,
they have been involved in a serious confrontation that is undermining the international
community and EU effort to resolve the Libyan crises. Italy concern is that to stem the
refugee flow from Tripoli to Rome, to maintain the supply of gas, and to secure
commercial gains for Italian goods in the country. On the other side, the French
government is less concerned about the issue of illegal migration, since it doesn’t affect
her as much as it effect Italy; France is focused on to counter terrorism and to prevent
extremist fictions form setting up camps in the country. Also, France has more interest
in the Libyan oil and gas sector.

The Libyan government is currently divided into two parts: the UN recognized
Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and the self made rival administration
in the east sponsored by a military commander, Khalifa Haftar. Italy is supporting the
UN recognized GNA, while France is supporting the Haftar Government. France
divergent from the EU policy in Libya is to help achieve UAE, who is hosting France
Military bases and is the largest French arms buyer, its ambitions in the region, and to
thwart Turkey, who backing GNA, design of expanding its influence over the Eastern
Mediterranean region. In a nut shell, this division with EU has largely affected Libya and
has hindered any progress in resolving the long standing Libyan conflict and Libyans
strives to build a peaceful and democratic country.

Moreover, Brussels has mainly focused on ill legal migration, but its cooperation with
the Tripoli’s coast guard has come under criticism from human rights organizations.
Press recently founded that a large amount of Euros make their way into the hands of
terrorists and coast guard officers who exploit and abuse migrant.

The infighting between the EU countries, especially t French measures, EU has lost
credibility and capacity to exert influence over Libya. However, given the Russia
Influence in the region and the country proximity with European shores, Brussels
cannot afford to let Moscow to shape the country according to its perceptions. It will
threaten EU security and economic interest, especially if Moscow succeeded in installing
an authoritarian military regime in Tripoli. Therefore, EU countries, other than France
wouldn’t allow any such thing happened in Libya, which in turn require them to make
sure their presence in the region and avert every counter-productive attempt made by
Russia, France or UAE. Also, the EU powers had intervened in Libya politics, till date, for
this very purpose, and are likely that they would continue to do so.

To conclude, EU and Libya relations are marked with ups and downs throughout the
History. Till 1970 they had good relation with each other. However, the rise of Qaddafi
and his anti-democratic movement largely contributed to its turbulent relations with
EU. Currently, the division in EU over the Libyan issue has adversely affected the region
and has put it in turmoil and chaos. As both France and Italy backing opposing sides, the
EU has strived to respond to the turmoil unfolding in Libya; the Paris last year blocked
the Brussels statement calling on Haftar to stop his Tripoli aggression. And, appeal for
European support from Alsss Sarraj last year was left largely unanswered.
References

El-Gamaty, Guma. “Has the EU Lost Libya to Russia?” December 21, 2020: 1-2.

Human Rights Watch. EU-Libya Relations. Human Rights Watch.org, 2008.

Loschi, Chiara. “The EU Response to the Libyan Crisis: Shallow Impact with a Short-
Term Vision.” May 25, 2018: 2-3.

Moss, Dana. “Libya and the European Union: How Far Can the Relations Go?” August 13,
2008: 3-5

Weise, Zia. “The Libyan Conflict Explained.” January 17, 2020: 1-2.