Sanctions appeals and border criteria: two pressures on 29 June 2020

What was shaping the international agenda on 29 June 2020? Two reports from the preceding days point to pressure on outside actors: one over Libya, the other over Europe's external borders.

On 27 June 2020, Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Accord called on the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on individuals and "mercenaries". The call followed a statement by the National Oil Corporation that Russian mercenaries and other foreign actors had forced their way into the Sharara oilfield. The reports linked the episode to the Wagner Group and the Libyan civil war.

On 24 June 2020, ambassadors of EU member states met to develop criteria for reopening external borders to travellers on 1 July. European Commission guidance said non-EU countries with COVID-19 indicators comparable to or better than the EU average would make the safe list. Those indicators were the number of new infections, the trend in new infections, and testing and tracing. Reciprocity and links to the EU would also count. Under those rules, travellers from countries such as Brazil, Russia and the United States could be barred.

The two items differed in subject, but both put the EU in the position of deciding how to treat outside parties: whether to penalise foreign actors in Libya, and which countries' travellers to admit.