Europe calls for immediate Libya ceasefire

The heads of state and government of the European Union condemned the violence in Libya and called on all parties in Libya to accept an immediate ceasefire.

“We also call on Libya’s neighbouring countries to support a ceasefire and to refrain from any actions which might undermine Libya’s democratic transition,” the European Council said in a statement.

They said that they ‘fully support the efforts of the United Nations mission in Libya.’

Libya’s prime minister and cabinet resigned last Thursday to make way for a new government. Abdullah al-Thinni’s cabinet said that it had resigned to allow Libya’s new House of Representatives to form a new and more inclusive government.

The House of Representatives replaced the General National Congress in June, but was forced to relocate to the eastern city of Tobruk to escape heavy fighting in the capital, Tripoli.

Armed factions mainly from the northwestern city of Misrata expelled a rival group from Zintan from Tripoli and are trying to reinstate the previous and more Islamist parliament, the GNC.

“We call on Libya’s interim government and the House of Representatives to establish a truly inclusive government,” the European Council said. “We encourage the Constitutional Drafting Assembly to urgently work on a constitutional text that will enshrine and protect the rights of all Libyans.”

Malta’s Foreign Minister George Vella had earlier proposed the setting up of an International Commission for National Reconciliation in Libya. Vella said that the EU should give Libya technical, humanitarian and political aid to prevent the country from becoming ‘another Iraq’.

In Saturday’s European Council meeting, heads of European states and governments appointed Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk as the President of the European Council and Italy’s Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini as the EU’s foreign policy chief.