Brussels, 14/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 13 October, the chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), and the Parliament's standing rapporteur on trade with Tunisia, Marielle de Sarnez (ALDE, France), hailed the formal launch of negotiations for an EU-Tunisia free trade agreement (see EUROPE 11409) in Tunis the previous day. They described the launch as “a much needed move to secure Tunisia's progress towards a stable democracy”.
Since the negotiating mandate for this free trade agreement was adopted in 2011, “Tunisia has been following (…) a challenging path to stable and secured democracy, with courage and determination”, Lange said, adding that Tunisian civil society had played a “crucial and constructive role (…) in particular within the preparations for the trade negotiations”. Lange called on the European Commission to support Tunisia throughout the whole process of negotiations and “to follow a progressive and asymmetric approach regarding the commitments asked to Tunisians”.
“A few days after the historic award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Tunisian civil society organisations, the launch of these negotiations is very timely”, de Sarnez stated, in whose opinion the respect of two conditions is crucial for ensuring the future agreement works well. Firstly, the negotiation process must be transparent (the mandate will have to be made public, she says) and secondly, it must be inclusive (involving not only the Tunisian Parliament and Tunisian civil society, but the Tunisian citizens themselves, who “have to feel that the agreement is there to serve their interest in their development”). The agreement will also have to be “smart and progressive” in order to address sensitive issues - services and agriculture - for both sides and to ensure a win-win situation for both partners.
The European Parliament's approval of the future EU-Tunisia free trade agreement will be needed in order for it to enter into force, a Parliament press release published on Tuesday states. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)