Last week Libya announced it would cease issuing visas to citizens of European countries in the Schengen zone.

Even citizens currently in possession of visas would be denied entry. The reason was some irrational decisions made by the Swiss government starting in the summer of 2008.

In doing so, Libya was merely retaliating to rather unjustified Swiss government's decision to blacklist 186 Libyans.

The Swiss action means that no Schengen country, can issue full Schengen visas to the Libyans on the blacklist.

By doing so, the government of Switzerland dragged the whole of the EU countries into unnecessary dispute with an ever friendly Libya where these Europeans are finding ample business opportunities.

Knowing that Bern was acting irresponsibly and continuously failing to solve a problem that should have been solved long ago, Italy, Spain and Malta moved to help mediate between Tripoli and Bern.

On Thursday, Libyan Secretary of Foreign Liaison Mr. Mousa Kousa held talks in Madrid with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline-Calmy Rey days after Tripoli blocked visas to citizens of the 25-nation Schengen Area. The talks were mediated by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos whose country holds the presidency of the Council of the EU.

"There has been progress and overall a will to find a solution, but I cannot hide the difficulty, the difficult situation which Libyan and Swiss authorities are in at the moment," Moratinos told a news conference on Thursday.

"There are advances and the will to find a solution, but it is a difficult situation at the moment," said Moratinos, who met with the two ministers both separately and jointly.

Kousa did not comment on the talks and Calmy-Rey only said the three countries would "keep working" in the search for a solution.

There is a possibility that the negotiations to solve the dispute that entangled the rest of Europe will continue in Berlin on Friday.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said Switzerland, which earlier this year operationally joined the Schengen zone of free movement for people in Europe, was abusing the agreement.

Frattini told Italian media that Swiss tensions with Libya were holding "hostage" the 25 member Schengen zone and that the Alpine country could have avoided the current troubles.

On Wednesday, a meeting was held in the Italian capital Rome between Kousa, Foreign Minister of Italy and Malta's Deputy Prime Minister Foreign Minister during which the three men discussed the Swiss actions against Libya.

"We regard the compiling of this list as a mean policy aimed at diverting attention from the agreement" signed by Tripoli and Bern last year to defuse the crisis," a Libyan official said on Wednesday.

He branded the Swiss blacklist against Libyans as a crime.

“How can you describe such a list that includes the name of a child less than three years old?" he asked.

A move by Switzerland to impose Europe-wide visa restrictions against nearly 200 prominent Libyans may have backfired, a Geneva-based expert tells swissinfo.ch.

The Swiss decision, made last autumn, was one of many salvos in a two-year bilateral dispute and sparked Tripoli to bar citizens of Schengen zone nations from entering the country.

Marcelo Kohen, a professor of international law at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, said that Bern chose the wrong strategy.

In late 2008, the Swiss ban would have produced few ramifications outside its own borders.

But since entering the 25-country Schengen Area, Switzerland and its neighbours have been able to restrict the ability of people from outside the area to move freely within it.

That's exactly what Switzerland did. The Libyans alleged to be on the Swiss list are still permitted to enter other Schengen countries but must apply for individual visas.

That defeats the purpose of the Schengen agreement, Kohen argues.
Switzerland has not confirmed the blacklist's existence but says it is continuing to operate a “restrictive visa policy” toward the north African country.
 
{Tripolipost.com}