Last week the EU foreign ministers held a video conference to discuss the catastrophic situation in the civil-war country Libya. Especially in times of the Corona crisis, increased humanitarian aid is needed for Libya and the refugees there. I have discussed this with the editorial network Germany:
“The expansion of humanitarian aid in Libya, as in many other regions, is urgently needed. But the goal should be to provide the best possible care for the people on the ground, not to repulse refugees.”
The support of aid organisations already working in Libya “is much more effective than a military mission”, said Neumann.
In Libya, as in many other countries, social distancing is “simply utopian”, said Neumann. “Refugees live in very confined spaces, hygiene measures are not possible, protective equipment is not available.” The EU should not ignore these abuses. “If the crisis is not resolved everywhere, it will always come back to the EU.”
Now that the USA no longer wishes to make its contribution to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EU should compensate the US amount. The EU now has the opportunity to promote global cooperation in the Corona crisis and to lead such a movement as an exemplary humanitarian actor.
Mr Borrell hopes that European sanctions regime will be adopted in coming months
My statement on the European sanctions regime:
That plan is welcomed by MEPs. Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA, Germany), however, regretted that the recommendations of the Parliament Sub-committee on Human Rights had not been taken into account and NGOs had been left out of the process. “This plan is ambitious, but there is no timeframe or concrete actions”, she added.
