Brussels, 30/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Nine organisations defending human rights have sent an open letter to Javier Solana, Chris Patten and the EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs calling for the European Union to concretely discuss the problem of the deterioration of the human rights situation in Tunisia since the signing, six years ago, of the Association Agreement between this country and the EU. Among these organisations are Amnesty International, Avocats sans Friontieres, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, the International Federation of Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.
According to the organisations, is it the now or never for the EU to put pressure on Tunisia, in virtue of the "human rights" clause in the Association Agreement (Article 2: Ed). These organisations believe to know that a meeting of the EU/Tunisia Association Council should be called at the beginning of April, but that it will be postponed, under pressure from the Tunisians. At the same time, Tunisia wonders why it is thus singled out while, it as, it is distinguished in the region by a relative prosperity and stability and internal security. However, the EU 15 and the European Parliament, have hoped on several occasions that the Tunisian authorities allow concrete and significant democratic overtures, notably in terms of freedom of the press and association, while revealing certain steps in the right direction. The EU thus privileges the encouragement to progress in this direction rather than a sanction.