Brussels, 30/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - Tunisia is to make an official request for EU aid to finance the state budget in a context of acute political and economic crisis. For over a month, the united opposition has been calling for the government to resign and for the formation of a “government for the public good” (or of “technocrats”). The approach for addressing the security situation, the breakdown in the economy and the institutional process comes under the aegis of the powerful trade union, UGTT, and the employers' organisation, UTICA.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the survival of the government presided by the “Islamist” party, Ennahdha, and the discovery of a vast terrorist network linked to Al-Qaeda, Prime Minister Ali Larrayedh called a restricted ministerial council on Wednesday to agree on the procedure for soliciting financial support from Europe. A committee made up of ministers for foreign affairs, international cooperation and finance, as well as the governor of the central bank of Tunisia, was created to this end and is responsible for specifying the request to be put to Brussels, a press release from the government presidency states. It will mainly be a matter of presenting the state of progress on reforms demanded by external partners, such as the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). (FB/transl.jl)