Tripoli— “The government’s view is that it is a necessity to go directly to elections with aim of ending all transitional phases,” the Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told EU Ambassador to Libya Nicola Orlando during a meeting on Monday in Tripoli, according to GNU’s Facebook platform, Hakomitna.
Mr. Ellafi’s visit to Syria was also a subject of the discussion between the two officials.
The meeting comes at a time of ongoing intensive discussions over the activation of the Libyan political process and the unification of state institution by means of forming a unified government. While the House of Representatives seem to support this option as a prerequisite to holding general elections, the Government of National Unity (GNU) sees things differently.
On his part, Mr. Orlando focused during the meeting on the need of unifying the public budget, which subsequently requires unified institutions— meaning a unified government. He wrote on X, “I underlined in particular the urgency of a unified budget to ensure equitable wealth distribution, and confirmed the EU’s support for public finance reforms to strengthen transparency and oversight.”
“Finally, we emphasized the importance of collaboration with UNSMIL to advance the political process and make tangible progress toward national elections,” Orlando added.
Hakomitna’s statement said: “The meeting discussed the importance of supporting the existence of a unified [budget] distribution mechanism with the aim of enhancing transparency and oversight and ending parallel spending, in addition to strengthening the partnership between Libya and the European Union within an intensive work plan for the year 2025.”
Meanwhile, the other important issue that was a subject of exchanging views between Mr. Ellafi and the EU Ambassador was Ellafi’s visit to Damascus last Friday.
Orlando wrote on X, “we also addressed the impact on Libya of events in Syria, following his meetings in Damascus. We agreed on the importance of the withdrawal of all foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya and fostering positive relations with all regional partners to safeguard Libya’s sovereignty, unity and stability.”
The results of the recent meetings held by the European Union with the Joint Economic Group and the Joint Military Committee 5+5, the impact of regional conditions on Libya and regional files of common interest were also reviewed, Hakomitan statement said.
