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EU Council agrees to border measures, including some concerning Libya

Update 23:00  Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It took him nearly four months and several bouts of political wrangling with Switzerland, but Muammar Qadaffi, Libya’s leader, Thursday 25 February called for a holy war, or Jihad against Switzerland. The reason: the European nation’s vote in early November 2009 against the construction of new minarets [Ed. note: the vote did not ban minarets, so the existing ones will stay]. Qaddafi was addressing a large crowd from several Muslim countries, before prayers in a Benghazi square.

The Swiss government refused to comment on the Libyan leader’s call to Muslims around the world when asked by Swiss public broadcasting to do so, but Justice  Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a Thursday meeting of the Council of Justice and Home Affairs of the  European Union and Schengen Area in Brussels that Switzerland is justified in placing Qadaffi on a black list of people who are not allowed to enter the Schengen Area by way of Switzerland.

According to TSR, Swiss public television, she also defended Swiss actions again Italy’s foreign ministers charges that Switzerland is using its Schengen membership for political gain. The ministers met to discuss improving measures to curb illegal migration into the Schengen area on its southern borders. Italy in particular, has had a major problem with illegal immigrants from North Africa, including Libya.

Earlier in the day Qadaffi’s son Hannibal contacted the lawyer for Max Goeldi, a Swiss businessman who began serving a four-month prison term in Tripoli, Libya this week, to offer his condolences, Swiss media report. Hannibal Qadaffi is widely considered in Switzerland to be at the root of political problems between the two countries, following his arrest in Geneva in July 2008 for abusing a member of his staff in a city hotel.

The EU Council meanwhile agreed to a number of measures to help resolve border issues. One measure which involves Libya:

“To implement actively the European Council Conclusions of June and October 2009, including in particular by taking forward the dialogue on migration with Libya, with a view to setting up in the short term an effective cooperation. The Commission is invited to explore, as a matter of urgency, a cooperation agenda between the European Union and Libya with a view to including initiatives on maritime cooperation, border management (including possibilities for the development of an integrated surveillance system), international protection, effective return and readmission of irregular migrants and issues of mobility of persons.”

Links to other sites: allAfrica, official Swiss comment on EU meeting in Brussels, TSR (Fre)