EU/Tunisia: new trip of European leaders to Tunis

This Sunday, July 16, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed receives again in Tunis a delegation of three European leaders: Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, the President of the Italian Council Giorgia Meloni and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. This delegation is the same as the one that already visited Tunis on 11 June. A proposal for an agreement is more than ever on the table with a proposal for EU aid to the tune of nine hundred million euros in the long term and one hundred and fifty million in the short term. Curtain raiser.

Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed with Giorgia Meloni, Ursula van der Leyen and Mark Rutte in Tunis on June 11, 2023. AP - Slim Abid

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With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet

It was the head of the Italian government who initiated the talks with Tunisia and it must be believed that the support of Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen allowed the Europeans to form a convincing trio.

They failed to get President Kaïs Saïed to make enough progress to reach an agreement before the EU summit on 29 June, but they continued the discussions thoroughly, stressed the Dutch Prime Minister.

Kaïs Saïed may have repeated that he rejected the diktats of the International Monetary Fund and that he did not want to be Europe's border guard, but the European Commission openly hopes to finalize a memorandum of understanding this Sunday.

Five pillars are provided for in this agreement, including macro-financial assistance, trade and investment or energy transition. There is also this famous migratory component and Europeans are accused by NGOs of wanting to outsource migration management to a regime that the EU criticized a few months ago for the mistreatment of sub-Saharan migrants.

Tunisia: the EU proposes a "strengthened partnership" conditioned, in part, to an agreement with the IMF

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Tunisia
  • European Union
  • Kaïs Saïed
  • Giorgia Meloni
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Ursula von der Leyen
  • Immigration
  • International migration