Brussels, 19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 19 March, Tunisia's President Beji Caïd Essebsi said the day after the terrorist attack in the National Bardo Museum in Tunis that what happened in Tunisia “has nothing to do with Libya”. The attack claimed 19 lives and left other people injured (the exact number varies, according to different sources). Around 50 people were seriously affected by the shots of the three terrorists (two of whom were shot down on the spot).
Essebsi warned of “dormant jihadist cells” and called for increased vigilance against them. He also called for the means of the security forces to be strengthened. The Tunisians have called on their “friendly countries” - with Europeans in prime of place - to move from words to action and multiply their concrete support. Over the course of numerous debates, several politicians have explicitly regretted that the many messages of support for the new Tunisian democracy have not been translated into substantial action. The pledges of financial aid made at the G8 Deauville summit in 2011 have not been kept and European support remains measured and conditional, not corresponding to the breadth of the social crisis which is deemed still more dangerous than the terrorist threat. It is a breeding ground, some observers state.
The Tunisian ambassador in Brussels, Tahar Charif, told EUROPE that the EU's solidarity should now “be expressed through concrete support” which “could be translated in particular by technical support and the supply of equipment” to the security forces. Tunisia “is also seeking strengthened economic support from Europe through increased investment and greater financial support in donations and not in loans” in order to “set up projects that are able to give hope of a better life for young Tunisians”, Charif added.
The same position was taken by Elisabeth Guigou, the leader of the foreign affairs committee in the French National Assembly and also head of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean cultural foundation, who underlined on Wednesday “the need for an emergency plan” to help Tunisia. “European aid must be greater” because “the country is facing economic and social debts and difficulty”. The “successful political transition” is “a considerable achievement” but “requires greater economic aid than that which is currently given”. In a press statement on Thursday after a meeting with Tunisia's foreign minister, Taïeb Baccouche, Guigou said she “would like the European Council opening in Brussels today to be able to show its resolve to provide greater economic and financial aid to Tunisia”. According to EUROPE's sources, concrete announcements in the form of a statement (on which the European External Action Service is currently working) are expected on Thursday evening.
Supporting a more effective common response. “We urge the European Council and the international community to take position without delay on this new barbaric terrorist attack from Islamic State”, said leader of the European Parliament's S&D Group Gianni Pittella. He called for “all hesitation to be cast aside” because “the whole region is faced with a constant threat”. Europe “and the international community, must take action before the brutal and senseless strategy from Islamic State leads to the destabilisation of Tunisia - which is probably the most advanced example of democratisation in the region”. In Pittella's view, the EU must also do its utmost to avoid the risk of “destruction of the main sites of cultural and human heritage”. The issue is no longer just “marginal or regional” but requires of everyone a “more effective common response”.
The head of the European Parliament's Maghreb delegation, Pier-Antonio Panzeri (S&D, Italy), stated that the terrorists “tried to bring a deadly blow to the fragile Tunisian democracy. Their objective is clear”. Panzeri said he believed that “such a situation obliges us - Europeans and Tunisians - to adopt an appropriate political response”. Europe “must not only redouble its support to the Tunisian institutions but ask the international community again to shoulder all its responsibility in order to undo terrorism”, he said. The party of the European Left (EL) also condemned the attack and noted that “it comes a little less than a week” before the great gathering of civil society, the World Social Forum, is to be held in Tunis (24 March). Maite Mola, EL deputy leader, who will attend the forum, called for support for this event, “which is a way of responding to this attack from Islamic State” (our translation throughout). (Fathi B'Chir)