Aid provided to Tunisia since 2011 has been well-used and funding has been well-spent as it has largely contributed to the democratic transition and economic stability of the country after the "revolution", the European Court of Auditors states in a special report published on Tuesday 28 March.
The EU rapidly granted financial support, but the European Commission wanted to deal with too many domains, which has had the impact of reducing the potential impact of its aid and making these activities difficult to manage, explained Karel Pinxten, the member of the Court of Auditors responsible for the report. He said that in this context, it was essential for EU financial support to be efficiently managed.
The report says that coordination with big donors and within the EU institutions and their departments has been done well, but a number of insufficiencies have been noted. The report mentions delays in applying reforms whose progress was a precondition for aid. The auditors consider that the Tunisian authorities have introduced important reforms but very slowly and for two in three sectors, budget support was lacking in credible sectoral strategies. In some cases, this was budget support, but also autonomous projects, whose objectives were not specified or measurable.
To remedy these shortcomings, the Court recommends that the European External Action Service and the European Commission focus aid on a limited number of domains, improve implementation of budget support programmes and ensure better planning and speedier application of programmes. The Court says in its recommendations that the European External Action Service and Commission should reinforce programming and the targeting of aid. The Commission should review budget support programme implementation modalities and improve project planning by defining clear objectives and realistic indicators for monitoring performance. (Original version in French by Fathi B’Chir)