THE EU is to open an office in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi in an effort to improve the flow of aid for the authorities there.
The move was announced by the European Union’s high representative for foreign policy, Baroness Catherine Ashton, as she addressed MEPs in Strasbourg yesterday.
Following the announcement MEPs gave Ms Ashton, who has often been at the receiving end of complaints over what is seen as an uninspiring performance, a rare round of applause.
However, the European Parliament’s political groups pushed for a stronger and more united EU stance on Arab revolts. Many MEPs said sanctions including restrictions on travel and the freezing of bank accounts should target Syria’s president Bassar al-Assad, as well as 13 high-ranking Syrian officials.
The MEPs passed a number of resolutions calling on the EU to do more to to support the pro-democracy movements in North Africa and the Middle East.
The head of the largest group of MEPs, Joseph Daul of the centre-right European People’s Party urged Ms Ashton to set clear foreign policy priorities for “the Mediterranean, counter-terrorism and the Middle East conflict”.
The leader of the liberal group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Guy Verhofstadt, said EU support for Egypt as measured by financial aid, was inadequate. He warned worsening financial and monetary affairs in Egypt could lead to a counter-revolution.
The government crackdown in Syria was “nothing less than an Arab Tiananmen”, he said in a reference to state suppression of unrest in China in 1989. He ridiculed EU measure to freeze the assets and restrict the travel of Syrian officials, arguing many more should be added, including Syrian president al-Assad.
Ms Ashton said the office in Benghazi would support the civil Interim Transitional National Council which opposes Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadafy.
“There’s much more we need to do, Gadafy must go from power and must end his regime,” she told the foreign policy debate.
She said the EU had frozen assets held by Libya’s sovereign wealth fund and its central bank.
“These are young societies, and the young long for greater opportunities. We have to have the political will to be committed to make our markets available. It’s a challenge we have to rise to. If we don’t, the failure of economies in our neighbourhood will have a direct effect on us.”