Brussels, 28/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Since Thursday, Eva Joly, MEP of the Greens/EFA Group and chair of the European Parliament development committee has been in Tunisia where she has been asked to carry out a campaign in favour of cancelling out the Tunisian debt towards Europe, i.e. not only to its member states but to Europe as such. On Saturday, she is to give a lecture, long awaited and to be attended by the country's media, on “Debt and tax evasion: taking stock and reforms to be envisaged”.
Joly had, in February, launched a campaign at the European Parliament on this theme, proposing to provide her assistance and experience in the crackdown on economic and tax crime. Tunisia's debt is unbearable, she had then said. Joly believes the debts contracted by non-democratic regimes and which are not used in the interest of the population may be challenged. She calls for a moratorium to put a stop to the debt reimbursement haemorrhage which is of the order of €20 billion, and adds: “Europe has instruments that allow that debt to be converted into aid”. (FB/transl.jl)