Italy: In Pursuit of a New Role

Photo Credit Farnesina Digital Art Experience 

Italy has a long and complex history and relationship to Libya that predates the events of the past decade. Italy is conscious of this history and on February 17th 2011 unlike it’s European neighbours in France and the United Kingdom expressed deep concerns regarding Libya’s future. This is largely as a result of the pre 2011 revival of ties between the two countries.

The 2008 Treaty on Friendship Partnership and Cooperation between Italy and Libya - also known as the Benghazi Treaty - signed between Libya’s former leader Mu‘ammar Gaddafi and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, aimed to put an end to the long dispute regarding Italy’s colonial legacy in Libya and to open a new chapter of strategic cooperation. Libya and Italy, by signing the treaty, intensified their bilateral relationship in terms of state investments and countering illegal migration from Libya to Italy’s shores. Italy, from its side, pledged to pay 5 billion Euros of reparations to its former colony for 32 years of occupation, to be invested in basic infrastructures.

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