EU to present brief for Libya military attacks to United Nations

The United Nations Security Council meets today Monday, 11 May, to receive a briefing from the EU’s High Representative Federica Mogherini on an EU plan for military attacks in Libya, to try to curb the influx of migrants across the Mediterranean by targeting the trafficking networks.

The EU needs a UN mandate for armed action in Libya’s territorial waters to destroy smugglers’ boats, a drastic response to a shipwreck in which over 650 migrants and would-be refugees died at sea trying to reach Europe.

The Guardian newspaper said the United Kingdom had drafted the UN security council resolution to authorise the mission, which would come under Italian command, have the participation of around 10 EU countries, including Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, “and could also drag in NATO although there are no plans for initial alliance involvement.”

Mogherini will brief the UN security council in New York on the plans for a “chapter seven” resolution, authorising the use of force.

The British draft is believed to call for the “use of all means to destroy the business model of the traffickers” using the Royal Navy flagship HMS Bulwark – currently in the Mediterranean – and deploying helicopter gunships to “neutralise” identified traffickers’ ships.

More than 100 migrants have been saved from their sinking boat in the middle of the Mediterranean in a joint rescue commanded by the Royal Navy.

Libyan militias, jihadi groups, and Islamic State affiliates believed to be in cahoots with the trafficking networks are said to have heavy artillery and anti-aircraft batteries deployed close to the coast. Attacks on EU vessels and aircraft could trigger an escalation and force NATO to get involved, said policymakers in Brussels.

Mogherini believes the Chinese will not block the mission at the security council, and that Russia can be persuaded against wielding its security council veto.

But Russia has said that it would veto any UN Security Council resolution that would authorise the destruction of migrant boats in Libya. The Financial Times reported that Russia might consider supporting “a more restricted mandate for any EU military mission, which could involve a search and rescue role alongside powers to stop and seize smugglers’ boats at sea.”

The Italian government, which is leading the drive for military action and which would command the mission which would be headquartered in Rome, said at the weekend that the Russians were “ready to cooperate”.

Libya’s ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told the Associated Press that he had not been consulted on the plans and opposed them.

Separately from the push in New York for EU military action, Brussels is also calling for new and binding rules establishing a quota system of sharing refugees among the EU’s 28 countries.

The EU may accept up to 20,000 refugees a year and set up an automatic redistribution programme for migrants from southern European states, under plans currently being developed in Brussels.

The Wall Street Journal said that a draft text due to be adopted by the European Commission, was proposing a distribution among EU states of people who haven’t yet entered the bloc, using a formula that takes into account the size of the population in the receiving country, the strength of the economy and unemployment rates in each country, as well as the number of refugees they have taken in so far.

The 16-page ‘European Agenda for Migration’ comes in response to the refugee crisis Europe is facing, after thousands of migrants died in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean.

Under the plan, up to some 20,000 refugees would be resettled through a €50 million fund in 2015-16.

Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is the main driver behind this initiative, which has the backing of the German government, two EU diplomats told the WSJ.