Brussels, 24/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 27 September, Tunisia and the European Union began their exploratory talks to boost their cooperation and grant Tunisia an “advanced status”, like the one enjoyed by Morocco, with which an innovative new framework was set in place at the end of 2008. A number of countries of the region have followed suit: Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan are all asking, for this label - giving it different names in some cases - which is worth more for its political façade than for the content which, according to several commentators, can be designed and implemented as part of existing “action plans” under the neighbourhood policy.
What is different about this framework, as the Tunisians have written to the Community negotiators, is the ability to lay emphasis on the desire to provide their country with access to “advanced partner” status in order to “devote a strategic choice with a view to our more sustained political and economic anchorage in the Euro-Mediterranean area”. This will also translate into “the political support of the EU to the societal choices made by Tunisia and, more specifically, the process of modernisation and democratisation its leadership is committed to”.
Tunisia in calling on the EU to bring about a “turning point in their strategic relations”. In substance, the scheme is very similar to the one in place with the Moroccans: increased number of opportunities for meetings and dialogue, most notably on the sidelines of each session of the UN Assembly General but not, in Tunisia's case, the request for a regular “summit”. The exercise has also proven extremely demanding for the Heads of States, notably when the Moroccan sovereign did not attend last March's “summit” in Grenada.
Politically, a delicate subject which is often on the agenda of Euro-Tunisian meetings, Tunisia proposes: - to promote the exchange of information and experience on the role of civil society, the freedom of expression and pluralism of the media; - support for the action programmes of NGOs operating in the fields of environmental protection, people living with disability and people in situations of difficulty; - the creation of programmes to protect the rights of immigrants against racism, xenophobia and discrimination in the host countries, and the institution of aid mechanisms for voluntary repatriation; - support for programmes to spread a culture of human rights, particularly in teaching establishments and among young people in general; - creating in-depth training cycles on human rights for legal personnel.
Tunisia points out that it is already committed to a process of bringing its legal and regulatory framework closer to the Community acquis, notably on the basis of Community institutional support instruments, and that it wishes to accentuate this approach. This harmonisation effort has had a particular impact upon normalisation, standardisation, metrology, commercial and intellectual property rights, sanitary and phytosanitary rules, the fight against counterfeiting, gauging, accreditation, competition, taxation and customs. Tunisia hopes to be more directly involved in Community decisions with an impact on its economy and the activities of its businesses and industries with the setting in place of a “joint mechanism” to be used to “identify the priority areas in which a rapprochement of the rules is needed, to define the content and scope of this rapprochement and to decide on a timetable, including the various stages for its completion, given the Tunisian context and the accompaniment and support measures needed”.
The process should apply in all areas of common interest in which cooperation exists or is to be set in place: integration in the infrastructures and connection to the trans-European networks, energy, water, agriculture, information and communication technologies, sectorial and regional cooperation (industry, research and political innovation of businesses, environment and sustainable development, tourism, financial services, investments, regional, scientific and cultural cooperation, education, training, health and employment) and, most of all, ensure its involvement in Community programmes and agencies. The question outstanding is that of the European budgetary support for these ambitions. (F.B./trans.fl)