By Sami Zaptia.
London, 25 May 2021:
UNSMIL reported yesterday that on 23 May, the Co-Chairs of the Economic Working Group (EWG) including UNSMIL Coordinator Raisedon Zenenga, together with Ambassador Mohamed Abubakr of Egypt, U.S. Special Envoy and Ambassador Richard Norland, and Ambassador Jose Sabadell of the European Union convened a meeting with the Libyan government to review the Economic Track and discuss collaboration on the way forward.
The Libyan government was represented by a high-level delegation from the Ministries of Economy, Finance, Planning, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister’s Office.
All participants agreed on the importance of maintaining the momentum on the economic track, including on further developing and harmonizing critical policies and moving forward with the unification of Libya’s financial and economic institutions. Among the issues discussed was the importance of the swift adoption of the 2021 national budget.
Participants emphasized the interconnectedness between the economic, political, and security tracks of the Berlin Process and the importance of parallel progress in all tracks. They agreed to follow up the meeting with technical-level discussions to identify priority areas of collaboration in advance of the Second Berlin Ministerial Conference on Libya on 23 June 2021, including a possible physical meeting to agree on an implementable action plan.
