The release of the Bulgarian medics illustrates the value of the EU to its poorer, weaker member states. On its own, Bulgaria could never have achieved what the EU accomplished as a whole.

The EU deserves credit for its role in securing the July 25 release of the six Bulgarian medical workers imprisoned in Libya, the Financial Times reads.

The article lauds the EU's common foreign policy, earned through years of grueling effort and negotiation.

While France, along with the UK and Germany, contributed to the complex deal that delivered the Bulgarians' to freedom, this EU power has tried land in the spotlight and assume credit a shared triumph. 

The real origins of the deal lie in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's 2003 decision to abandon his programme for weapons of mass destruction and emerge from international isolation. 

Western governments, keen to win access to oil and gas, were eager to remove obstacles to relations with Libya, one of which was the case of the Bulgarian medics. 

The deal has not been accompanied by any significant domestic reforms in Gadaffi's regime, and the EU does not anticipate immediate change.