Frontex and Irini strengthen their cooperation to enforce the arms embargo on Libya

Last year, the European Union gave the green light to a naval mission in the Mediterranean, called Irini. The main objective of this mission is to control the UN arms embargo on Libya.

Irini, which means "peace" in Greek, is scheduled to be active until 31 March 2021. This mission can carry out inspections on the high seas off the coast of Libya of vessels that there is reason to believe are carrying arms or related materiel to or from Libya.

The European Union, through this mission, intends to contribute to the peace process in the country. This new mission also replaces Operation Sofia, which had been in place for five years, with the aim of combating organised crime of trafficking in migrants.

The launch of Irini has provoked criticism from countries such as Turkey that he considers the mission to be biased and accuses the Europeans of seeking, through this mechanism, to prevent the delivery of weapons by sea to the Tripoli government, ignoring those supplied to Khalifa Haftar by his allies by air and land.

For its part, the EU maintains that Irini has helped document the violations of the embargo by Turkey and Russia. This is why both Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency and Operation Irini have agreed to extend their cooperation to address the challenges and threats to EU security in the central Mediterranean region.

Under this agreement signed by video conference, Frontex and Irini have agreed to intensify their exchanges of intelligence and expertise, especially in the coordinated use of satellite images, analysis, mobilisation of specialists and tactical coordination. "Operation IRINI is a valuable operational partner for us. Frontex will provide information that will help address security challenges in the central Mediterranean. We are also working together to help save lives at sea," said Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri.

From Irini they point out that "the cooperation between our organisation, which started in 2015, remains vital and an extremely valuable instrument at the disposal of the European Union as a whole in its effort to support the Libyan peace process, launched in Berlin by the international community in January last year".