Posts Tagged Libya
Dictators and Democracy
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 24/02/2011
Last week’s EU blog considered the limitations of the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in light of the recent Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. As events in North Africa have continued to deteriorate, it seems appropriate to consider the EU’s response to Libya’s revolutionary efforts. Whereas Tunisia was the benchmark of stability in the South Mediterranean, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya has never harboured sincere commitment to democratic reform. This begs the question: why has the EU compromised a catalogue of its most fundamental values – democracy, the rule of law, human rights protection – to pander to a volatile dictator?
The price of friendship
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 01/09/2010
Monday marked the two year anniversary of the signing of the ‘Friendship Treaty’ on immigration between Italy and Libya, writes Natalie Hamill. Visiting Italy for the fourth time this year, Colonel Gaddafi punctuated his visit with several provocative claims, not least that the EU should pay Libya €5 billion a year to stop migration flows to the EU, and that Europeans should convert to Islam. Gaddafi lectured those willing to listen (mainly a parade of young women hired from an Italian model agency) on the virtues of Islam as the ‘ultimate religion’; three of the girls ‘converted’, to complete the stunt.