No progress on Libya visa row

EU Justice Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom yesterday admitted there had been no progress in the spat between Libya and Switzerland despite continuing diplomatic efforts.

This means that citizens from the EU's Schengen area countries, Malta among them, still cannot enter Libya due to visa restrictions.

The issue was raised yesterday in Strasbourg by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil. He took the floor during a plenary debate in the European Parliament on new measures the EU will be introducing to facilitate the stay of third country nationals in EU member states.

Dr Busuttil appealed for the EU's direct intervention to solve the impasse, which, he said, was causing hardship to hundreds of Maltese who needed to travel to Libya for work.

He said it was ironic that while the EU was debating granting third country nationals more rights and longer stays within its territory its citizens were having difficulty travelling to Libya because of the ongoing dispute it had with Switzerland.

"While we are opening ourselves up further to third country nationals, and rightly so, we now have a dispute between two non-EU countries that is resulting in obstacles to the free movement of our own citizens.This cannot be right and the EU should move immediately," Dr Busuttil said.

He called for the urgent intervention of Ms Malmstrom in a bid to avoid further repercussions for workers who were unable to travel to Libya and for companies whose investments in Libya were at risk.

The commissioner said she was fully aware of the ongoing diplomatic dispute but had no news to give.

She reiterated her commitment to work for a breakthrough as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago, Libya decided that it would no longer recognise Schengen visas, thus denying access to nationals of the borderless zone.

The retaliatory move was made in the ongoing dispute with Switzerland following the arrest and interrogation of one of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons in that country.

Although a number of member states, including Germany, are mediating between the two countries, Col Gaddafi last week upped the stakes by calling for holy war against Switzerland.