The EU is to grant macro-financial assistance (MFA) of €500 million to Tunisia, the European Commission announced on Thursday 27 April. This assistance will take the form of a medium-term loan under favourable conditions and will be paid out in three tranches over this year and next, in line with the implementation of the reform programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Initial assistance of €300 million was granted in 2014 and two tranches of this have been paid. The MFA is an exceptional instrument for intervention in the event of crisis in a country under the neighbourhood policy, the Commission states.
With this step, the EU is making a real commitment in a complicated context. It will help this economically destabilised partner to offset its financing constraints, support its structural reforms and promote sustainable growth to the benefit of all Tunisian citizens, said the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici.
The financing agreement was signed in Brussels on Thursday by Moscovici for the EU and, on behalf of Tunisia, by the Governor of the Central Bank, at a ceremony attended by the finance minister, Lamia Boujnah-Zribi. The minister expressed her satisfaction, stressing that the European support coincides with Tunisian strategies. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)