Brussels, 17/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 16 June, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström expressed the EU's admiration and respect for the Tunisian people's democratic transition, and she highlighted the role that civil society plays.
Civil society's involvement in this transition, and particularly in the negotiations with the EU, can be taken as an example, it was stated at the end of a conference on Tunisia which brought many civil society organisations together at the initiative of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), under the auspices of the European Commission. The conference was attended by Malmström and Tunisia's minister responsible for the Dialogue with Civil Society and Human Rights, Kamel Jendoubi.
The Commission's director-general for neighbourhood policy, Christian Danielsson, announced that a communication was planned in order to draw on the experience of how to work with countries that are on similar journeys. In Europe too, civil society should be more involved in the political process, he said, stating that the Lisbon Treaty paved the way for contributions from civil society in public policies (Article 11). In Jendoubi's view, the Tunisian case should not be reduced to an example of the transition of a Muslim country. It would be simplistic to do this, he said. It is instead an important subject on democracy.
The coordinator of the Tunisian “tripartite dialogue”, Lilya Rebai, said that there were 60 Tunisian NGOs involved in the Tunisian transition process. “Something has been built. We have learned how to dialogue, how to overcome certain misunderstandings”, she said. “We were thinking about going further and integrating parliamentarians and civil society in order then to try and create a Euro-Tunisian platform”, she added.
A tripartite structure is already “original” in itself, the head of the EMHRN, Michel Tubiana, stated. “There is only room for such a dialogue if there is democratic life”, he said, referring to the current reluctance in other countries in the region. The European Commission should not be in the position of arbitrator between a government and its civil society when the two do not get along with each other, he concluded.
The debate at the conference largely focused on economic aspects and the rights of migrants. “The trend is to close off” the borders in the EU member states, Malmström stated, calling for understanding of how to share out political responsibility and reach solutions that are compatible with international law.
As regards trade issues, Malmström tried to convince the conference that the Commission's move will be cautious. She said that a free-trade agreement could not solve everything but would contribute to solving the country's problems. The negotiations have no deadline, it would be more of a listening exercise, she said. Danielsson gave information about the existing brakes to progress, such as red tape and corruption. He nevertheless supported the Tunisian five-year plan that was adopted on the recommendation of the IMF. “We recognise the need to structure our internal economic dialogue”, Jendoubi stated. He also recognised that Tunisia had not yet confronted all “the legacy” of the previous government. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)