On Friday 12 April, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, decided to open an enquiry into the way in which the European Commission ensures respect for human rights under the agreement between the EU and Tunisia (see EUROPE 13318/19), the institution said on X on Friday 19 April.
On 12 April, the Ombudsman launched an own-initiative inquiry in which she expressed “her concerns about the absence of a prior human rights impact assessment, in particular with regard to the ‘Migration and Mobility’ pillar of the Memorandum of Understanding and the actions foreseen under this pillar“.
The institution is asking the Commission “to answer a series of questions on how it intends to monitor the impact of the actions carried out under the Memorandum of Understanding on human rights and what measures it has planned, including the possible suspension of EU funding if human rights violations are found”.
The European Commission had already responded to a request for preliminary information from the Ombudsman, which was not considered sufficient.
Link to the inquiry: https://aeur.eu/f/bvv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)