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Africa North
Libya: The ‘Expiry’ of the LPA and Its Consequences
2020-05-09
[ISPIONLINE.IT] The "Libyan Political Agreement" (LPA) is the somehow controversial outcome of the month-long, United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
-sponsored negotiations between various Libyan stakeholders in Skhirat, Morocco. It was signed on December 17, 2015 and endorsed by the United Nations Security Council a few days later. The LPA is the foundation of the current stabilization efforts led by UN Special Representative Ghassan Salamé, strongly supported by Italia, La Belle France, UK, the U.S. and many other nations. It is also the justification for Libya’s international recognized government, the "Government of National Accord" (GNA), led by prime minister Fayez al-Serraj.

According to several senior law experts, the LPA expires after two years, on December 17, 2017. Actually, this period of time is mentioned in the LPA itself. Article No. 1/ 4 of the LPA states unequivocally that "The term of the Government of National Accord shall be one year as of the date of granting it a vote of confidence by the House of Representatives. In case the Constitution was not finalized during its term, it shall be renewed automatically for one additional year only. In all cases, the term of the Government shall end immediately after the formation of the Executive Authority as per the Libyan Constitution, or the expiry of its specified duration, whichever is earlier". It can be argued, that with the endorsement of the LPA by the United Nations Security Council and the international recognition of the GNA as Libya’s legitimate government, the two-years period started de-facto right away on December 17, 2015, even without a vote of confidence by the "House of Representatives" (HoR), Libya’s internationally recognized parliament.

HOW TO OVERCOME THE "EXPIRY"?
However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
presumably the validity of the agreement will be somehow extended, although this was not foreseen, or, even more likely, the date will be simply ignored. The United Nations, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, several European nations, and the U.S. follow the argumentation, that the two years of the legal force of the agreement have not even started, because the agreement has not yet been voted into law by the HoR.

Notwithstanding that this can be certainly argued correctly, it leaves the question open, how a government can be recognized, while claiming that the agreement establishing the very same government has not yet entered into force. It is doubtful, that there is any legal justification for this.

As a consequence, the already very limited legitimacy and credibility of the GNA will be certainly further undermined.
Posted by:Fred

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