Diplomatic And Financial Crisis Between Tunisia And European Union
The Tunisian coast is the main starting point for more than 130,000 landings recorded in Italy since the beginning of 2023
Tensions between the European Union and Tunisia are increasing even more after the president of this North African country, Kais Saied, refused to accept the funds allocated by Brussels for the development of economic cooperation, but above all to curb migration flows to Europe.
In a note issued by the presidential office in Tunisia, Saied said that the size of the first tranche – 127 million euros – “violates the spirit of the memorandum of understanding signed in July with Brussels and of the resolution of the Rome Conference on Migration.”
In the dispute between Tunisia and Brussels, Italy is the most vulnerable country, caught between the “anvil” of a migrant wave that cannot be controlled and the “hammer” position of neighboring countries, such as France and Germany, which are closing their borders to columns of African refugees.
Despite the fact that the European Commission “predicted” the payment of another 42 million euros specifically for “Tunisian coast guard boats,” but without specifying the exact date of payment, President Saied called Brussels’s funding “alms” and demanded “respect” for Tunisia.
At the center of the dispute between Tunisia and Brussels is a “memorandum of understanding” mediated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
According to Tunisian media, based on the memorandum, “a total of more than one billion euros should be allocated,” which is supposed to be divided into several installments to strengthen coastal control (105 million euros), to directly support the Tunisian budget (150 million), and 900 million euros, subject to reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on Tunisia’s accumulated debt, which should be invested in macroeconomic assistance to this North African country.
According to the TAP news agency, promises of cooperation are only a “good omen” for Saied, while the EU actually demands from Tunisia only one, or rather two, measures: “an iron blockade of borders and total control of the departure of migrants from the Tunisian coast,” which represents the main base for more than 130,000 landings recorded in Italy since the beginning of 2023.
“Tunisia accepts cooperation, but does not accept charity or alms. Our country and our people do not want pity, but demand respect,” said Saied, according to whom “Tunisia rejects what was announced in the last days by the EU, and not because of the amount, as all the wealth of the world is not worth an ounce of our sovereignty, but because this proposal contradicts the memorandum of understanding signed in Tunisia in the spirit that prevailed at the Rome Conference in July.”
“Tunisia,” Saied concluded, “is doing everything possible to dismantle criminal networks involved in trafficking people and human organs.”