The President of the Council of Italy, Giorgia Meloniis "seriously dealing with the problems of Libya". This was stated by the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity of Libya (Gun), Abdulhamid Dabaiba, in an interview granted exclusively to "Nova Agency" during his visit to Rome. “Frankly, this government of Italy is dealing more with the problems of Libya. I really appreciated President Meloni's visit in January, who chose Libya as her first or second visit abroad, and that she came with a large delegation to discuss very important issues. We have the perception that the prime minister of Italy is very serious with regard to the problems of Libya: she is dealing with the issue closely”, says Dabaiba, who has been on an official mission to Italy since yesterday at the head of a large ministerial delegation. "That's why I wanted to return the visit with a great team: we want to finish what we started and continue the cooperation between Italy and Libya", adds the premier of the executive recognized by the United Nations. “We consider Italy as a gateway to Europe. Many important issues concern us such as immigration, the oil sector and the economy. It is very important for us to see a government in Italy that takes serious action and achieves concrete results”, Dabaiba continues.
The Italian government led by Meloni "is capable of making strong decisions" and, above all, has its eyes fixed on Libya, "Italy is our key to access Europe. And then there is a government which, frankly speaking, is capable of making strong decisions. We have tried with other Italian governments, which however had other problems. The eyes of this government are focused on Libya: this is good because we can help each other,” says Dabaiba.
“We want to help the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, prepare this international conference on migrants. We support every effort that can prevent these people who come from the deep South from dying in the Mediterranean, forgive me for these words, like lambs. We are facing this problem in Libya, but it must also be faced in other countries. Europe should deal more with these problems and share this burden with us”, adds the premier of the government recognized by the UN.
About the matter migrants, Dabaiba adds that the phenomenon of flows from Africa to Europe "is beyond the capabilities" of his country. “Libya suffers first and most of all from illegal migrations. What happened in the last ten years has created fragility in the management of large migratory movements from the south. The fight against immigration is for us a national issue, before being an international issue. Illegal migrants have created many of the other security problems in Libyan society and the country, such as drug trafficking and the smuggling of oil for fuel. It has become complicated for us to receive and manage these people who are hungry and looking for a better life. We have tried to accommodate them, but the problem is beyond our capabilities,” says Dabaiba.
According the premier, Libya intends to bring the issue of illegal migration flows to the attention of the European Union at the end of June. "Yesterday we signed an agreement with Italy, not even your country is able to manage this phenomenon", reports the premier of the executive recognized by the UN, in reference to the declaration of intent to intensify Italian-Libyan collaboration in the field of border security, strengthening actions to combat transnational criminal organizations that manage the smuggling of migrants. “It is first of all a national phenomenon, then a European and international one,” adds Dabaiba. “We have agreed with Italy to bring the issue to the attention of the European Union at the end of the month. It would be very important for us to be able to share or at least express our concerns in Europe”, the premier continues.
Dabaiba underlines how in the last twelve years, Libya has been "off the rails" of stability, but now the "train" is back on track and "the Libyan people are at the helm". “For 12 years this train called Libya has been off the rails. Many have tried to get their hands on this train for their own benefit. We have put the train on the tracks of stability and now we want to guide it towards a great future, because Libya has a bright future ahead of it”, says the Libyan chief executive recognized by the United Nations.
Speaking of energy issue, the premier specifies that Libya still has "a lot of undiscovered gas" and has set itself the goal of supplying the markets in Italy and Europe. “We have so much undiscovered gas. We want to supply Italy and Europe with our gas. It's a very limited market, with little room for everyone. We want to use all our capabilities and all our partners to produce this gas and send it to Europe. With Italy, our neighbor, we share infrastructure and can develop even more oil and gas,” Dabaiba said, referring to the pipeline GreenStream which connects the Libyan fields to the Gela gas terminal in Sicily. “We are trying to overcome the problems of the last ten years and work together. This is our goal”, adds the prime minister of the government recognized by the United Nations.
A new, large agreement for the exploitation of gas and oil fields in Libya will be signed next July. “Libya has large oil and gas resources. We have already signed an agreement to increase onshore and offshore gas production. Together with Eni and other countries we have big projects in the pipeline. A memorandum was signed yesterday, but next month we will sign a big agreement together with other countries and other big companies,” says Dabaiba. Eni yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of studying and identifying opportunities with Libya to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop sustainable energy in the country. “What companies am I talking about? It is a consortium, the important thing is that it will be led by Eni but everyone is invited to participate”, adds Dabaiba, without providing further details.
The premier adds that Libya is carrying out a "major project" to export clean energy to Europe through Italy. “We are in the process of launching a large solar project with the aim of exporting electricity to Europe via Italy. It is a Libyan project with the help of a large international energy company and banks,” explains Dabiaba, probably referring to the 500-megawatt solar plants that the French company Total Energy is expected to build. The head of the Libyan government recognized by the United Nations also spoke of a submarine "electricity line" with a "large capacity" to convey solar energy captured by plants in Libya to Europe.
Dabaiba also underlines how Libya has strengthened its own Internet network thanks to the agreement signed yesterday in Rome for the project BlueMed, the submarine fiber optic cable that will connect Italy with France, Greece and various countries bordering the Mediterranean. Sparkle (Tim) and Libya postal telecommunication and technology holding company (“Lptic”) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a new infrastructure linking various cities in Libya to Sicily. According to what "Nova Agency“ came to know, in particular, the extension of four connections in Libya is foreseen: two in Tripolitania and two in Cyrenaica, respectively in Tripoli, Misrata for the west; Benghazi and Derna for the east. "It is not an idea, but it is an executive project signed by two large international companies to have a secure Internet cable, which will connect to our network and which, from Libya, will be able to extend to other countries in Africa", says Dabaiba. "The short distance between Italy and Libya allows us to have low latency and a secure Internet", adds the premier.
As for the political file, Dabaiba says his government's goal is to end the long transition period, but it is first necessary to have a "balanced, fair and inclusive constitutional law that includes all Libyans without exclusions". "Many people are trying to find other ways to extend the transition period, while we say: let's go to the elections," reports Dabiaba. “However, elections require a constitutional law and this is not the government's job. Furthermore, the elections themselves are the responsibility of the Higher Electoral Commission (Hnec). Our work is very clear and has two purposes: to support the Hnec; ensure the security of voters and the electoral process. The Interior Ministry police control all of Libya now. We have no problem in checking and securing the ballot boxes,” says Dabiaba. “On the other hand, we have two problems with the constitutional law and with the road map for the elections. This law should be balanced, just and designed for all Libyans without exclusion. If this law were approved today, there would be elections tomorrow,” says Dabaiba.
Recently, the Committee for the Preparation of the 6+6 Electoral Laws, made up of MPs from the House of Representatives and members of the State Council, announced that it had reached an agreement on the parliamentary and presidential elections, although no written documents have been signed yet. The Committee itself announced that, in order to allow for the vote, a new transitional government must be installed. "Those who try instead to raise the question of a new government are going against the will of the Libyan people to go to elections and to achieve stability", comments Dabaiba on his part.
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