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The first “crisis response” mission of the diplo service. Useful !

(BRUSSELS2 / Analysis) The first mission of the diplomatic service - in a complete format - on a crisis site, in Benghazi (Libya), still deserves a few additional lines.

A delegation bringing together different visions

The composition of this delegation was interesting. A dozen people. Diplomats and crisis managers from the EEAS, specialists from the Instrument for Stability and Development from DG DevCo (Nb: delegates from ECHO, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office, were already on site) as well as two experts from the EU "border" delegations (Cairo and Tunis). A very interesting diplomat-security-development-political mix which bears, in a certain way, the indisputable mark of the new European diplomatic service (1).

The first two rapid exploratory missions, one in Tripoli, the other in Benghazi, followed this time by a more in-depth mission of a full week, thus made it possible to take the temperature. Bringing together various skills makes it possible to avoid having three or four different missions that would have started from Brussels. The analysis reported is thus more complete and more refined, as can be seen from the report made yesterday.

Faster consolidated global expertise

The old timers will probably tell me that this is not the first time, that "we have been doing this regularly for years"... Certainly. But it was still pretty rare. Often too, it didn't happen that way. Each directorate of the Commission and the Council went their own way, bringing back excellent evaluations which could diverge, quite simply because the initial visions were not the same. If the "joint" mission of the EEAS can have the usefulness of carrying out a proven assessment in a few days, consolidated in the light of on-site discussions between the various experts, we gain a few weeks, even a few months, and we save a few solid, small, lane battles. This gain is probably not very visible. But if this gain exists, he is rather happy.

The usefulness of the crisis response structure of the EEAS

This also demonstrates the usefulness of the "Crisis Response" station, which thus finds its first application in the field. A quick analysis could conclude that this position had no justification. And, indeed, in this civilized environment, "stuck" between diplomats, administrators and soldiers, the "crisis response" department had to prove its usefulness. It's now done, in my opinion. On this point, we must thank the management of the EEAS for having been able to impose a point of view, which was not automatically that of the majority, nor within the EEAS teams or the crisis management teams of the PeSDC, or classic European humanitarian actors (ECHO...) who all looked at the Miozzo team a little with suspicion, or at least circumspection.

And now...

It now remains to transform the test. NB: A similar mission is in preparation towards the Ivory Coast, this time! One could also wonder if a similar mission would not be necessary in Yemen (2), where the security risk seems to me to be far greater than in Libya...

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Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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