EU expected to lift Libya sanctions

European Union foreign ministers are today expected to drop 11-year old sanctions against Libya and ease a separate arms embargo to reward the North African country for abandoning plans to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The 25 EU ministers opened debate on a recommendation, put forward on September 22 by EU ambassadors, to lift economic and other sanctions imposed on Tripoli and bring it in line with a United Nations decision last year.

At their regular monthly meeting, the EU foreign ministers will also discuss sanctions against Burma, debate lifting an arms embargo against China and discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

Carla del Ponte, the UN war crimes prosecutor, will brief them on efforts to bring to justice indicted war crime suspects who remain at large in the Balkans.

The EU, like the United States, wants to improve relations with Libya now that it has scrapped its weapons program.

The Europeans are eager to invest in Libya’s substantial oil reserves and obtain its cooperation in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe.

The move to improve relations with Libya follows last year’s decision by the UN Security Council to lift 11-year UN sanctions against Tripoli.

Separately, foreign ministers are also expected to approve an Italian request to ease the EU’s own arms embargo imposed on Libya in 1986. That would allow Libya to buy high-tech equipment to prevent the flow of illegal African migrants through Libya into Europe.

An EU “technical mission” will likely visit Libya in November to assess Libya’s need for equipment to monitor illegal migration.

Italy wants to sell equipment like night-vision binoculars, but has not been able to do so because of the arms embargo.

The United States last April lifted most of its commercial sanctions after Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi abandoned his banned weapons projects.

But trade restrictions, including an arms embargo, remain on the books.

The UN sanctions were imposed in 1992 to force Tripoli to hand over two Libyans indicted for the 1988 bombing of an American airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

The Security Council suspended the sanctions after the two men were delivered for trial in 1999, and abolished them last year after Libya agreed to compensate the families of the Lockerbie victims as well as those of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over Niger.

As a sign of warming relations, Gadaffi went to the EU’s Brussels headquarters in April on his first trip outside the Mideast or Africa in 15 years.

European Commission President Romano Prodi has visited Libya several times to meet Gadaffi to discuss ways for Libya to sign up to an EU aid and trade pact it has with North African and Middle Eastern nations.

To join up to that pact, Libya will have to sign declarations renouncing terrorism as well as committing to implement democratic reforms and respect human rights.