Brussels, 20/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 March, the European Council published a statement in which it “condemns the appalling terrorist attack” against Tunisia this week.
On Friday, European Council President Donald Tusk and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that they will visit Tunisia on 31 March to strengthen the cooperation between the EU and Tunisia, particularly as regards security.
In its conclusions, the European Council states that the European Union “extends its deepest sympathy to the victims, their families and the Tunisian people”. The statement also says that “the European Union and its member states will intensify cooperation with Tunisia to counter this common terrorist threat, to strengthen Tunisia's promising democracy and to assist its economic and social development”.
The Council was nevertheless expected to produce much more substantial “conclusions”, particularly on the offer of concrete cooperation on security, prevention and the supply of equipment in order to plug the shortfall suffered by the Tunisian police. Calls to translate the statements of solidarity into acts of concrete solidarity have multiplied in Tunisia. France rushed its minister for the interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, to Tunis on Friday, and Tunisian media state that all these issues will be raised with him.
The issue was well addressed at the recent Association Council in Brussels on Tuesday 17 March. The EU affirmed its “desire to strengthen its cooperation” on security with Tunisia, “including on integrated border management” - with the reminder that an “EU precursor programme was adopted in 2014 with the objective of supporting the modernisation of working methods and cooperation” in this area. Last February, the Council outlined its cooperation in this area. Furthermore, the EU has been involved in a dialogue with the Tunisian authorities on the subject since 2012, being “determined to support true reform in the security sector, based on the arrangements of the new constitution devoted to a state of modern and democratic right”. (Fathi B'Chir)