EU Official Says he Pressed Lebanese Politicians on Elections
A top European Union official said he informed Lebanese officials during his visit to Beirut that the presidential and parliamentary elections should be held to have a healthy democracy
Hugues Mingarelli, who is the Managing Director for North Africa, Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Iraq at the European External Action Service, said: “You have a democracy and there are routine elections and a multi-party system.”
“However, this does not mean the institutions are functioning properly. And there is also sectarianism,” Mingarelli told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published on Friday.
He said he asked Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri during his talks with them for the presidential and parliamentary polls be held in a timely manner.
“A president should be elected first. Unfortunately, there is now an agreement to extend parliament’s term,” he said.
Lebanon has been without a president over the failure of the rival MPs to agree on a successor to Michel Suleiman whose six-year term ended in May.
The failure to hold the presidential elections has been exacerbated by the inability to organize legislative polls.
Parliament will most likely extend its term for the second time under the excuse that the security conditions don't allow the elections to be held without security incidents.
Mingarelli warned that the vacuum under such conditions is “very harmful.”
Regarding assistance to Lebanon, Mingarelli told An Nahar that the EU “is exerting huge efforts to increase the budget of cooperation with Lebanon for the purpose of helping it confront the Syrian crisis.”
According to the daily, the budget specified for Lebanon for the years 2014-2016 is 130 million euros.
There are over 3 million Syrian refugees from the war, mostly in neighboring countries. Around 1.5 million of them are in Lebanon.
Their displacement has had tremendous effects on the country's already ailing economy.
European countries and the U.S. have been extremely reluctant to accept Syrian refugees, leaving the burden to countries neighboring Syria — Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, which are ill-equipped to deal with the floods of people.
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