Libya’s eastern-based government bars entry of EU migration commissioner, three ministers including Malta’s

Libyan officials ordered EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner and several senior European ministers to leave the country.

cdBrunner, on a diplomatic mission with government ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta, was declared “persona non grata” and accused of “violations” in Benghazi, according to an official statement published by Libyan officials on Tuesday.

The “diplomatic incident” arose because the EU doesn’t recognize the eastern government in Libya, said one person familiar with the matter, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

Benghazi is under the de facto control of the Russia-aligned warlord and military leader Khalifa Haftar, who has held sway over the east of the country since it split into two dueling administrations in 2014. Talks earlier in the day in Tripoli, in the west of the country, had passed without incident.

The EU governments were expecting to exclusively meet Haftar and declined an invitation to meet several top eastern officials from the Haftar-backed parallel government, the so-called Government of National Stability, including the foreign minister and prime minister.

“The delegations were in the VIP area of the airport and were about to have a meeting, but Haftar wanted several of the ministers (and definitely the PM and the FM of the Eastern Libyan govt) to join the meeting,” a government official from an EU country told POLITICO in a text message. “That was not possible for the EU Commissioner and the EU govts to accept. Brunner had agreed only for a meeting with Haftar. It seems that Haftar’s reaction was staged.”

An Italian government source told POLITICO the mission collapsed after EU Ambassador to Libya Nicola Orlando raised concerns about the composition of the Libyan delegation, aiming to avoid — per EU political protocol — engagement with the foreign and interior ministers of the Benghazi-based government, which the EU does not recognize as legitimate.

Posting on Facebook after returning to Malta, Byron Camilleri, Malta’s minister for home affairs, said: “Unfortunately the meeting scheduled in Benghazi was canceled following a protocol issue between the local authorities and the EU Embassy in Libya.”

A Facebook post by his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi made no reference to the unusual incident. A post on Brunner on X praised earlier talks in Tripoli and sidestepped the diplomatic incident, saying only: “The meetings planned in Benghazi could not take place in the end.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to that the Commission had received the information about Brunner and was looking into it.

The delegation swiftly left Libya, with all officials returning to their respective countries, according to three people familiar with the matter.