Introduction
Libya has been an instructive case study on the difficulties Europe has in identifying and engaging with shared foreign policy imperatives or in resolving the cross-cutting policies of member states to create cohesive and coherent foreign policy. EU policy to Libya –as elsewhere– has been to deploy the collective institutional weight of the EU-27 defensively against the most broadly perceived threats, such as migration, or in support of the policy goals of leading member-states such as Germany. The EU’s supportive role behind various German foreign policy positions in Libya, from the need to combat migration through stabilization to buttressing the Berlin process is as much a product of Germany’s relatively unique willingness to address foreign policy issues multilaterally as it is a reflection of the German ability to influence the EU system.
