Daniel Kawczynski – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department made of the potential effect on Libya of the suspension of the Temporary Financial Mechanism before that suspension occurred.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK led thinking on the Temporary Financial Mechanism (TFM), established by the Contact Group in Doha in 2011 as a temporary response to the urgent financial needs of the new Libyan National Transitional Council, intended to be used until the new Libyan administration was able to take control of Libyan state assets and revenues that supported Qadhafi’s regime. The UK provided the funding to prepare the TFM and to establish operating procedures that would provide confidence that there was transparent and independent oversight of the funds, and that they would be used in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.

After National Transitional Forces (NTC) forces took control of Tripoli on 22 August 2011, the UK sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 2009. This established the UN Support Mission in Libya to support stabilisation in Libya, modified the asset freeze on four key listed state entities, provided for a new exemption to unfreeze their assets and mandated the Sanctions Committee to lift the remaining freeze as soon as practical (in consultation with the Libyan authorities). The TFM was used to provide a range of critical financial support, including the import of refined fuel, the treatment of injured Libyans, and family support payments to Libyans who had depended on government welfare payments.