Hi.

First of all, it's my first question here. I'm Johanna Wood Dia. Thank you for, calling my question.

It's regarding, an incident that took place yesterday in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Sea Watch 5 has reportedly been under fire by, Libyan forces yesterday.

I was wondering what you do know about this incident at this time,

and will there be consequences given that Libya is a partner.

Of the EU and this is not the first time this has happened.

Johanna and welcome to our press briefing, even online.

This question will be for Guillaume, and I understand we've exhausted indeed the questions for Markus today,

so we have this question for Guillaume,

and the question previously also on the Ukrainian children will also be answered by Guillaume. Good afternoon.

On the recent, incident you just mentioned, so what I can say is that indeed we have seen the report about,

this incident involving a vessel transporting migrants which, took place yesterday.

Our EU delegation in Tripoli, which will reach out to the, to the counterparts.

In Libya to inquire about this incident and they will try to establish the facts. Our position remains the same.

All parties to a search and rescue operation must fully respect international law and international maritime law. And the follow up. Go ahead.

Yes, hi, I mean, this has been going on since at least 2017.

With similar statements from this podium about follow-ups and need to establish the facts.

Have you managed to establish any facts of any of the past incidents where the Libyans were caught shooting? At the NGO vessels.

And can you also remind us of all the support you've given to the Libyan Coast Guard in terms of funding,

in terms of donations, Etc. Etc. Etc. Thank you.

So When it comes to the incidents and the previous incidents, it's very important to mention that every time that this happened,

the EU delegation directly reached out to the Libyan authorities to request information and they brought up the incidents to their attention.

This was also done, as I said, by the delegation,

but also we do so when we have technical missions, you know, sometimes here in Brussels or in Libya.

And every time we meet,

we passed this important message is that they need to ensure that all measures are taken in Libya to ensure full compliance with their national and international obligations.

When it comes to the situation in Libya,

we know the situation is indeed complex and we know that migration management. Poses some challenges.

Our, our engagement, as I said, here many times, is really to support a comprehensive and rights-based migration management,

including the protection of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers in full respect of of. International standards and rules.

That's why we have put in place different programs, as you mentioned,

together for instance with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes.

We have been engaging in dialogue and providing training to improve the operating procedures and we'll continue to do so. This is really important for us.

This is key for us really to address the key structural issues that we have here.

Induce long term changes on our side also we are looking into ways to support the Libyan authorities in reinforcing the national monitoring and accountability procedures so everything that we have been doing,

we will continue to do so and actually the reason.

Incidents, they show that this work needs to be thorough reinforced.

Of course we know about these very unfortunate incidents.

We don't know how many have been prevented precisely because we have been engaging consistently with the Libyan authorities on this issue.

Still a follow up on this, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, thank you for that, response.

I mean, are you not complicit, given the fact that you've been supporting the Libyan coast guard for all these years?

And despite all your statements and your Plans to reinforce this authority,

they continue to shoot up vessels.

I mean, now they threatened to even abduct.

The crew and take the boat back to Libya.

So it seems like an escalation, you know, also with the Ocean Viking, you know, they were fired upon for 20 minutes.

So, are you not somehow complicit given your, do you not see your role in this at all? Thank you.

Listen, I think it's very important here to mention that our engagement, as I said,

is really about improving the situation on the ground and to make sure that we have,

the, the necessary, instruments and procedures in place to protect migrants. States are responsible.

For the actions on the ground and they must actually follow up on those incidents.

In other cases there were some there were some investigations opened by the Libyan authorities and it is their responsibility to do so.

On our side,

it's important to mention that we every time an incident takes place we ensure the follow up.

As I said, we bring up the issue to the Libyan authorities.

We also do so across the board, for instance, we discuss directly with our implementing partners for EU funded projects to understand the situation,

to recall the importance of respecting all the international standards when it comes to search and rescue operation. We have our technical missions. We also work directly with the IOM.

To reinforce the human rights department in the Libyan Ministry of Interior of Defense, so we, we do this action across the board, we have in place monitoring instruments,

which we rely on and we continue to actually, follow closely the situation, always in mind,

with our, with one objective in mind is actually the respect for international law. Yes, please. Sorry, kind of a follow-up question.

Gaya Nieman from the Observer also, due to, increasing, danger and, also criminalization of search and rescue missions, are any policies being discussed about,

greater protection to humanitarian organizations who are going to the Mediterranean across, border areas also in,

outside EU areas to make sure that they're not, being grilled for their brave work.

Look, we have in place a series of instruments, on the ground, we have, we have, our regular reports from implementing partners,

variation missions, we can have resource oriented monitoring exercises, external evaluations,

we work with implementing partners on the ground which.

We have direct dialogue, so we do this, with, with everyone who is actually implementing our, our projects,

it's also important to mention that any, EU funded capacity building or projects, must be used.

I mean, for instance, you mentioned, the support we have been providing to the Libyan coast guards,

so we're talking about trainings, but we're also talking about, for instance, vessels.

All of this must be used with the definitions for which it is mentioned in the contract, meaning solely for the use of search and rescue operation,

so all of this is mentioned in our contracts, all of this is mentioned in our dialogue with implementing partners,

so everything is is is followed very closely.

And the questions to Guillaume, please, on the Ukrainian children you had asked before.