EU says diplomatic incident with Libya "a protocol issue"

The European Commission on Wednesday said "a protocol issue" prevented EU ministers and Commissioners from meeting with Libyan Arab armed forces in Benghazi a day earlier.

European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert refused to give further details but said the EU was maintaining open channels of communication.

Authorities in eastern Libya refused entry to three European ministers and the EU commissioner for migration on Tuesday on alleged entry violations, apparently after they stopped first in the rival Libyan capital of Tripoli in the west.

A statement from Prime Minister of the eastern part of Libya, Osama Hammad, said the interior ministers of Italy, Greece, Malta and the EU migration commissioner, Magnus Brunner, were “persona non-grata” after they were denied entry shortly after their arrival in Benghazi.

It said the ministers had entered illegally and had not followed Libyan diplomatic conventions. In addition to Brunner, the delegation included Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Maltese Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.

The delegation was visiting Libya seeking tougher migration measures against boats carrying migrants from the country.

The EU has spent years and millions of euros trying to stem the people smuggling operations that have thrived in Libya’s lawlessness and brought hundreds of thousands of desperate people to European shores.