Tunisian week: a stronger EU- Tunisia partnership
"Cooperation between our two parliaments has emerged stronger from this Tunisian week", said European Parliament Vice-President David-Maria Sassoli as the event closed on Thursday. "We must now give concrete form to the shared experiences and good practices, to benefit all our citizens", he added.
From 2 to 4 May, Members of the European Parliament (EP) and their counterparts from the Assembly of Representatives of the People (ARP) shared their experiences of parliamentary, legislative and representative good practices. In various workshops, they debated, in particular:
- intensively and constructively, the role of political groups in a parliament (watch workshop I),
- the need to involve parliaments in all trade negotiations, well upstream, and before it is concluded, to prepare the EU-Tunisia Free Trade Agreement (watch workshop II on the FTA),
- the need to strengthen ARP-EP links to tackle corruption and the financing of terrorist networks (watch workshop III on fighting money laundering),
- the need to promote a culture of gender equality in order to transform legal provisions into social reality and establish a women’s committee within the ARP (watch round table on gender equality and women’s participation in public life),
- the expectations of Tunisia’s young people to be able to study, be trained and work in line with the laws in force in (watch workshop IV on the links between Parliament and civil society, and
- substantial support from the EU to Tunisia, with a conditionality policy tied to the implementation of reforms (watch debate on current and future EU-Tunisia relations).
ARP President Mohammed Ennaceur said "Stepping up European aid to the new Tunisia will be crucially important and will be a big help in laying the foundations of a real and effective strategic partnership that matches the challenges that Tunisia faces".
"You can count on our support; we are in favour of stepping up European Union assistance under the various partnership instruments. It is important not only to consolidate economic growth, but also to ensure that it is sustainable, said European Parliament President Antonio Tajani at the 2 May opening of the Tunisian week at the European Parliament.
Note to editors
Tunisia’s President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi is visited the European Parliament in Brussels on 1 December 2016.
On 14 September 2016, the European Parliament voted a resolution on EU relations with Tunisia in the current regional context.
In June 2016 MEPs approved €500 million in EU loans to Tunisia on favourable terms, to help it reduce its external debt and consolidate its democratic mechanisms
Further to a European Parliament decision in February 2016, the EU also granted Tunisia a temporary duty-free quota for its olive oil exports to the EU.
In August 2015, the Tunisian government asked the EU to contribute €500 million to a second aid programme, supplementing International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans.
The EU granted Tunisia €300 million in financial aid in 2014.