Brussels, 08/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) was in Tunis on 4 July for talks with the members of government on their plan to decentralise, a plan made necessary by the “14 January revolution”.
“Regional development and local democracy are two sides of the same coin which support each other mutually”, the head of the delegation and former CoR president, Luc Van den Brande, said representing ARLEM (Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly), after his meeting with the Tunisian minister responsible for regional policy, Rafaâ Ben Achour. “We are in Tunisia to confirm our support for the democratic process of that country, which today represents a real testing ground for the Mediterranean region, and which constitutes the realisation of a positive and modern force for change”, he told him. Van den Brande also welcomed the initiative of the Tunisian government to invite the ARLEM office to meet in Tunis in the near future and its resolve to jointly organise a Euro-Mediterranean conference on regional development and decentralisation in Tunisia. (F.B./transl.jl)