Working Paper: The implementation of EU Crisis Response in Libya: Bridging theory and practice

This working paper explores how the EU substantiates its crisis response in Libya by focusing on local stakeholders’ perceptions and practices. Complementing EUNPACK’s study on the EU’s framing of the crisis in Libya (Ivaschenko-Stadnik et al. 2017) and our preliminary survey on local perceptions of EU crisis response (Loschi and Raineri 2017), the present paper provides an in-depth analysis of the output level and impact of these measures. in Libya, the EU’s crisis response has come in for unprecedented levels of criticism. The securitisation of migration, and the framing of the latter as a crisis with destabilising potential, have led to the EU’s normative commitments being overlooked, if not abandoned, in spite of their relevance precisely in times of crisis. The shortcomings of the crisis response in Libya suggest that for the foreseeable future the European Union may face serious challenges if it wishes to be perceived as a credible actor inspired by “principled pragmatism” (European Commission 2016a), let alone as a “force for good” (European Commission 2003) in its foreign policy and in its neighbourhood.