The EU Offers A Macro-financial Package To Tunisia And A Renewed Agreement On Migration

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, offered Tunisia a comprehensive financial assistance package this Sunday to guarantee the economic stability of the North African country and agreed on a renewed partnership on migration against human trafficking.

“We both have a broad interest in breaking the cynical business model of smuggling and traffickers, who deliberately put human lives at risk for profit, and we will work on a partnership anti-trafficking operation,” Von der Leyen said in Tunis, where he announced 100 million assistance for rescue in the Mediterranean and return.

Von der Leyen has been accompanied by Mark Rutte and Giorgia Meloni

Von der Leyen, accompanied by the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and Italy, Mark Rutte and Giorgia Meloni, broke down in Tunisia a total of five pillars of European funding in the sectors of digitization, energy, migration, human exchange and the development.

This last pillar contemplates the largest financing from the EU of 900 million euros, plus 150 million in budget support, but conditional on the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the president, Kais Said, has not yet ratified as he opposes the package of reforms.

Von der Leyen, Meloni and Rutte

EFE

The European official also announced an investment of 150 million in the Medusa project, a fiber optic submarine cable that links the two shores of the Mediterranean, and financing to renew energy connections and work with Tunisia as a producer of clean energy that can be exported to Europe. .

Rutte considered that the migration issue is one of “the most important issues” to face and Meloni announced the upcoming organization of an international forum in Rome with the countries affected by the rebound in the Central Mediterranean, with more than 51,000 people who have arrived in what which goes from year to Europe by sea, mainly from Tunisia and Libya.

“As part of our joint work on migration, the fight against irregular migration to and from Tunisia and the prevention of loss of life at sea is a common priority, including the fight against smugglers and human smugglers, strengthening of border management, registration and return in line with respect for human rights,” they said in a joint statement.

read also

The vanguard

“With Tunisia we share much more than geographical proximity. We share history. Since 2011, the EU has been supporting Tunisia on its journey to democracy. It is a long and sometimes difficult path, but its difficulties can be overcome,” said Von der Leyen, and defended closer relations in the face of “global uncertainty.”

In addition to the deep financial crisis that Tunisia is experiencing, the arrests of political opponents of the Tunisian president, who took full powers in 2021, have encouraged criticism from human rights organizations for the autocratic drift of the North African country.

Said’s statements in February, branded as “racist”, against the Suh-Saharan population, whom he accused of being part of a plot to change the “Arab-Muslim” identity, have also contributed to the departures by sea in the Mediterranean, according to some NGOs that alert that Tunisia has become an “unsafe country” for this community.