European Union leaders agreed to send a new diplomatic delegation to Libya after military leader Khalifa Haftar asked his former representative to leave the country.
Speaking about the bystanders’ sidelines at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, Greek Prime Minister Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Marta Robert Abra said that re-marriage to Libya is important.
The four leaders agreed to the need to reinvigorate Team Europe’s initiative with delegations from the European Commission and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta being relocated to Libya.
Team Europe is comprised of the European Union, EU member states, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), aiming for a coordinated approach to solving the problem.
The Rome story “confined” EU delegations on Tuesday and coordinated the meeting as a means of recognizing the legitimacy of the Benghazi-led Libyan regime, following Khalifa Haftar, a military leader who holds de facto power in much of eastern Libya.
The delegation was declared “non-grata of Persona” and was asked to leave Libyan territory upon arrival at the airport in Benghazi.
The mission included Commissioner of Interior and Immigration Magnus Bruner, Italian Minister of Home Affairs Matteo Piantedosi, Malta Minister of Home Affairs Byron Kamilleri, Greek Minister of Immigration, Athanacios Prevris, and the EU ambassador in Libya, Nicola Orlando.
The mission traveled to East Libya after meeting in Tripoli with representatives of the National Unity Government (GNU), an internationally recognized executive led by Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dubaiba, who controls Tripoli and Western Libya.
The diplomatic incident risked complicating European efforts to prevent a wave of irregular migration from Libya to Europe.
Arrivals have skyrocketed in recent weeks, with Greece having decided to temporarily suspend asylum requests for those arriving at sea on Wednesday.
More than 500 people were transferred to the Port of Labrio near Athens early Thursday after being intercepted south of Crete.
The combined reception centre between Crete reached capacity and about 500 new arrivals per day arrived on the Mediterranean island from the weekend, so they were ordered to move to the mainland.
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According to island officials, authorities in Crete have struggled to provide basic services, using temporary facilities to accommodate immigrants primarily from Somalia, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco.
Greece remains an important entry point for individuals fleeing conflicts and difficulties in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Arrivals surged last year, with over 60,000 migrants landing in Greece compared to around 48,000 in 2023, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency.
By mid-June 2025, Greece had recorded 16,290 arrivals, of which over 14,600 were at sea.
As Greek authorities are stepping up patrols along the eastern maritime border with Turkey, it appears that traffickers are increasingly choosing longer and more dangerous routes across the Mediterranean from North Africa, using larger boats that can carry more people.
