High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini will be in Tunis on Tuesday 1 November, for a visit mainly aiming to reassure the Tunisians as to the ongoing nature of European support for economic recovery and political stabilisation of their country.
Mogherini is to meet the principal leaders of the country, particularly President Beji Caïd Essebsi, who is to travel to Brussels in early December. She will attend the inauguration ceremony of a decontamination project financed by the EIB at Lake Bizerte, in the north of the country, and will hold talks with representatives of civil society.
At the end of September, when a joint communication from the European Commission and the European External Action Service was published, the EU stated its intention of doubling its financial support in 2017 (€300 million) and of keeping this support at a higher level until 2020. In order to ensure the greatest possible effectiveness of this support, the Tunisians are called upon to step up the pace in the completion of their reforms and to put their economy back in order. The urgency of these reforms is felt in Tunis as well as in Brussels.
"The gulfs are taking root and Tunisia is breaking up", a columnist on the ground wrote on Monday. The commentator Twefik Habaieb writes that all of the right ingredients are in place, and yet Tunisia is not getting back to work: "the major choices of society have been ruled upon by the constitution. There is a mandate for democracy and modernity, notwithstanding a few scattered pockets of resistance made up of Salafists who favour sharia law and call for jihad (…). Unfortunately, this strong binder has not been activated".
His conclusion is that Tunisia is continuing to play it by ear. The EU and all of the other external partners are not excluded from this issue: "too much external influence, too few effective commitments to economic and financial support (…). Grants, credits and other facilities agreed are not consistent with the challenges in Tunisia and in the region, and are not enough to consolidate democracy and change the country's course". (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)