From the Centre for European Reform, this is the CEO podcast.

It is a critical moment. If we do not act with urgency, we would then severely undermine the liberal order.

Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.

The wind is back in Europe's sales. We have now a window of opportunity, but it will not stay open forever.

Hello and welcome to the CER podcast. My name is Sophia Besh and I'm a research fellow here at the

Center for European Reform and today I'm in conversation with Luigi Scatsieri, who's also a research

fellow here at the CEO. Welcome Luigi. Hi, Sophia. So I think it's a bit over a year ago that you've

been on this podcast talking about Libya and then then this summer, violence erupted once more.

Libya is back on the agenda, and so you're here to talk about it again.

We particularly, I think, want to focus on the EU's reaction, the EU strategy towards Libya.

But before we start, could you just catch us up on what has happened in Libya over the summer?

Yeah, so I mean, what we saw in August and early September was essentially an eruption of

violence and Tripoli, just the capital of Libya fighting between militias.

That took many people, in a sense, those that don't have their eye regularly on Libya by surprise

because, you know because we usually tend

to see it through the angle of migration and essentially not a problem. But the truth is that

since 2014, Libya has been in a state of essentially civil war after a brief period of stability

following the overthrow of Gaddafi. They divided between different factions.

The UN backed a deal in 2015, but the country remains divided.

So just to give you a quick snapshot, there's two main players.

One is a UN-backed government in Tripoli, led by Saraj, and the other is a government in

the east of Libya that was also part of this peace deal

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