Brussels, 18/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Tunisians are disappointed by the offer of €17 million, in addition to the €258 million in already planned aid, proposed by EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton when she visited Tunis on Monday. The figure was described as “derisory” by a Tunisian minister on a visit to Rome. “The figures announced by the EU in aid for Tunisia show that it has not understood the scale of the historic events taking place on the southern rim of the Mediterranean”, said Industry Minister Afif Chelbi, though he claimed not to know if European aid amounted to millions or billions.
The €258 million proposed for the traditional aid programme could only be increased through accounting sleight of hand. The initial sum of €240 million (for 2011-2013 under the National Indicative programme, NIP) has been increased by €18 million by scraping all the loose change from budget lines not fully used (human rights, support for civil society). The only “new money”, the €17 million in exceptional aid, seems pathetically little to Tunisians who calculate that much more is needed for their immediate needs. In all, the aid is not even as much as the €330 million Tunisia received under the previous three-year aid deal (2008-2010) which was reduced to €240 precisely because of the former president's unwillingness to move to greater democracy.
And yet Ashton had promised a strong helping hand: “The EU is the Tunisian people's strongest ally on its way to democracy”. But from the start, its support seemed paltry.
In Brussels, there is regret at the impression created. The money corresponds only to what has been identified and what can be made available from the Community budget, which is capped. Should we have taken from other countries to meet Tunisian demands? asked a source close to the matter. This is not the final offer in any case and European aid will be a long-term process, the same source said: we have not yet had the time for dialogue with the Tunisian authorities and their estimates have still to be finalised. If there were need, the EU could provide additional money to help with the organisation of elections and ensure their credibility. This is not counting the funding efforts the EU intends to drive either through the EIB or other international donors. An investment conference will take place in Tunis at the end of March or start of April under the aegis of the EU.
The Tunisians are launching an international subscription campaign. The governor of the Tunisian central bank (BCT) announced on Wednesday that an independent fund had been set up to receive money from Tunisian or foreign parties wishing to offer post-revolution Tunisia financial support. This fund, a BCT press release says, will look to gather “resources from donations and contributions of private individuals and legal entities to use them in financing regional development projects and directly in the form of social assistance, or through associations entitled in this respect”. (F.B./transl.rt)