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The Treaty on friendship, partnership and cooperation between Italy and Libya. New prospects for cooperation in the Mediterranean?
30/06/2009
Author : Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI - Italy)
By Natalino Ronzitti
 
On August 30 2008, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi flew to Benghazi to sign the Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation between Italy and Libya, concluding the long negotiating process that began under previous Italian governments and was accelerated by the current administration. The Treaty was meant to put an end to the dispute between the two countries and Libya’s claims relating to Italian colonialism. In greeting Colonel Muammar Gheddafi, Berlusconi expressed his regret for the colonial period in very strong terms.

In the name of the Italian people, as head of the government, I feel it my duty to apologize and express my sorrow for what happened many years ago and left a scar on  many of your families. Berlusconi also handed over the statue of the Venus of Cyrene, which was brought to Italy during the colonial period and which the Italian administrative court ruled had to be returned to Libya in a controversial judgment of 2007.

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1 COMMENT(S)
  • Re:The Treaty on friendship, partnership and cooperation between Italy and Libya. New prospects for cooperation in the Mediterranean?

One should ask the question what the added value is of such a bilateral treaty with a country which has not signed any agreements with the EU within the framework of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy and is only an "observer" in the Union for the Mediterrenean. Of course each Member State is free in agreeing such bilateral treaties, but it does undermine the general EU's external policy and the common values which are at the basis of the Neighbourhood Policy to some extent. Yet, if this ITA-LIB bilateral treaty would be a first step towards integrating Libya more in other regional cooperation structures, its added value would be a bit more than signing a treaty which aims at increasing business opportunities for Italian companies in Libya.

By Roel Hoenders on 10/11/2009 13:10
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