EU "very worried" about Libya, seeks end of violence (2nd Roundup)

Feb 20, 2011, 20:58 GMT

Brussels - European Union foreign ministers gathered in Brussels late Sunday for a special brainstorming dinner on pro- democracy uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, as the bloc's top diplomat expressed concern about ongoing repression.

Hundreds of people were reported dead after protests against authoritarian leader Moamer Gaddafi were violently put down. Unrest was also continuing in Bahrain, where demonstrators were killed earlier in the week.

'I'm really worried,' EU High Representative Catherine Ashton told journalists before chairing the ministerial talks.

'I think of Libya, I think at what's been happening in Bahrain on the weekend ... we urge restraint, we urge an end to violence and we urge dialogue,' she said as EU heavyweights France and Germany backed her remarks.

French EU affairs minister Laurence Waquiez said the Libyan crackdown was 'completely unacceptable,' while his German counterpart Werner Hoyer insisted that 'the use of violence has to stop.'

The EU has been walking on a diplomatic tightrope since uprisings flared up last month.

On the one hand, the bloc is keen to support democracy and human rights. On the other, it is wary of the instability revolts may bring about - with a surge in EU-bound migrants and a rise of Islamist movements among top concerns.

Exploiting those fears, Gaddafi has often warned that the EU could be faced with mass immigration from Africa if it stopped cooperating with his regime.

The threat was renewed this week, a spokesman from Hungary, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, indicated.

'The Hungarian ambassador was called in in Libya on Thursday and was given the message that Libya is going to suspend cooperation with the EU on immigration issues if the EU keeps making statements in support of Libyan pro-democracy protests,' he said.

Heeding the message, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg suggested that the EU should avoid confronting the Libyan regime.

'If Gaddafi falls, then there will be bigger catastrophes in the world ... It's no use for anyone if we intervene there loudly, just to prove our own importance,' he said to journalists.

On Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - a self- declared friend of Gaddafi - peddled a similar line when he declared that he had not gotten in touch with the Libyan leader 'because the situation is evolving and therefore I don't dare disturb anyone.'

Asked on Sunday whether the time to 'disturb' had come, Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini winced.

'I do not understand the question, there is nothing to joke about here,' he charged irritably.

In contrast, Ashton seemed unfazed.

'We hear threats, we hear people saying you should not do this, you should not do that, in the end the European Union does what's right,' she maintained.

Ministers were also expected to discuss aid packages to Tunisia and Egypt, the only two countries in the region so far where regime change has happened as a result of mass demonstrations. They were also set to discuss as an asset freeze targeting a handful of associates of former Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak.

We want 'to show we are there to help, and not to dictate what these countries should do,' Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

Talks were set to continue Monday, as Sunday's dinner preceded the regular monthly round of talks of EU foreign ministers.

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