Brussels 24/6/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU-Tunisia association committee met at the end of last week in Tunis, with the Tunisian Prime Minister, Ali Larayedh, to visit Brussels this Tuesday.
A press release reports that Hugues Mingarelli, Director General with responsibility for the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Gulf within the European External Action Service, who chaired the delegation of the EU, reiterated European support to Tunisia and its efforts to make a success of its democratic transition. The meeting allowed participants to take stock of progress with the management of the association agreement, in negotiations mainly on trade, and on support for transition in Tunisia.
Few details have filtered through and the Tunisian Foreign Minister went no further in a press release than to reaffirm “the importance attached by Tunisia to its relations with the European Union and the willingness of the Tunisian government to strengthen them still further in the framework of the privileged partnership” (our translation).
There is reason to believe that the agenda included the various dossiers already open, mainly trade negotiations for a “deep and comprehensive agreement” (DCFTA), particularly on services. The EU has commissioned a consultancy firm to carry out an impact assessment. They discussed the mobility dossier (movement of people), the Open Sky agreement (on air transport), for which a meeting will be held mid-week, and a programme of reform for the penitentiary and legal authorities (peer-based review).
Since last December's European green light to create a “privileged partnership”, the Tunisians have got down to the job, so that they can be ready to negotiate on the whole package, hoping that the procedure will be taken as a whole, in response to the European idea of examining each of the dossiers separately. Tunis has expressed a certain level of caution in getting into negotiations which will be decisive for a country in a period of relative institutional weakness. Talks are unlikely to kick off until early 2014, in order to give Tunisia enough time to come out of the current transitional phase, once it has adopted its constitution and held the eagerly anticipated general elections. In the meantime, the technical consultations are expected to step up a level. (FB/transl.fl)