On Tuesday 24 April, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced during a press conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that Tunisia and the EU had agreed to continue the agreement on olive oil quotas exempt from customs duties (see EUROPE 11954).
The two parties agreed on a further 30,000 tonnes for 2018, in addition to the 56,700 tonnes already existing under the association agreement. To help the country, which is badly affected by a fall in tourism after terrorist attacks, the EU decided to increase olive oil quotas exempt from customs duties by 35,000 tonnes per year for 2016 and 2017, and Tunis wanted these increased quotas for its olive oil imports to the EU to be prolonged. Juncker said the agreement has been obtained at the insistence of the prime minister.
Juncker announced that that two parties had agreed to reach an agreement on free trade “over the course of 2019 at the latest”, and he added that he wanted the agreement to be tied up under his mandate. Chahed stated it was important for the agreement to be progressive and imbalanced in favour of his country “because account must be taken of the economic differences”. He also announced a meeting at the end of May to see the principles that will be included in this agreement. Earlier in the day, he had told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee that while his country had made progress on the political section, it had probably progressed less on the economic and social section. “If democracy has a cost, it has been an economic cost”, he said.
Chahed also underlined the close relationship between his country and the EU in terms of counter-terrorism and opposing foreign fighters. “We will cooperate more”, he announced. Speaking to the European Parliament, he said he hoped the plenary session of the Parliament in November would bring it about for Tunisia to be removed from the GAFI list on money laundering and financing terrorism “at the end of the year”.
The two men underlined the importance of the relationship between the EU and Tunisia. Chahed thus said it was important to see beyond the work programme and 2018-2020 strategic priorities. “We would like to reflect on after 2020, to have a privileged status, because we have made a great deal of progress at the democratic level”, he said. In Juncker’s view, Tunisia “has made extremely impressive progress on democracy, freedom and social justice, and has become a model” for many other countries. “Tunisia and the EU are two things that go together”, he added, also underlining that for 2017 the EU had provided assistance for the country worth up to €300 million.
Juncker announced that he would visit Tunisia on 23-24 July. Before that, the EU-Tunisia Association Council will meet in Brussels on 15 May, and according to the European External Action Service, should be “the opportunity to announce new decisions to enhance the partnership and cooperation between the two parties”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)