Europe

Europe

EU: Ready To Support Democratic Transition In Libya

22 August 2011 19:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The European Union said Monday it was ready to start offering assistance to a post-Gadhafi Libyan regime soon, as it called on Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi to step down immediately, APA reports siting Wall Street Journal.

"The relentless efforts of the forces of the new Libya, supported militarily by NATO and several EU member states, and countries from the region are bringing the Gadhafi regime to its end," European Commission President JosÃ© Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman van Rompuy said Monday in a joint statement. "We urge Colonel Gadhafi to accept the will of the people, step down immediately, and avoid further bloodshed."

The EU has around â‚¬7 billion to spend to help neighboring countries going through democratic transitions by 2013.

Tunisia and Egypt are already receiving funds from the EU’s Neighborhood Policy funds. The regional bloc has said aid is conditional and that the more steps a country takes toward democratization, the more funding they will receive.

In the meantime, the EU is providing humanitarian assistance and help with security on the ground. Once the EU has sent a team out to carry out an assessment of needs on the ground, it could get larger-scale assistance going.

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign-affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said funds could be available for economic assistance, maintaining security, humanitarian aid, help in setting up elections and institution building.

"We would hope that we can launch our assistance as soon as possible," he said.

Mr. Mann said the amount of assistance a post-Gadhafi regime could receive would be conditional on moving toward democracy.

Mr. Mann called on the opposition forces to abide by humanitarian law and urged them to avoid reprisals against Col. Gadhafi’s supporters. And he called on the opposition to ensure that Col. Gadhafi and his son Seif al-Islam are handed over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague "so that they can stand trial in the correct way."

He praised the opposition, the Transitional National Council, for showing "a very responsible" attitude until now and urged them to ensure that "everyone in Libya," including some of those involved in the Gadhafi regime, have a role in rebuilding Libya.

He also said that for now, sanctions on Libyan top officials and companies would remain in place.

However he said sanctions could be lifted "as soon as we think the time is right."