Two months after the signing of the controversial agreement signed between the European Commission and Tunisia, the European People’s Defense, Emily O’Reilly, has published a letter asking the president of the Community Executive, Ursula Von der Leyen, for more information on how Human Rights will be respected in the country, especially what concerns migration management.
“As you know, there is a clear concern about the Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Tunisia (…) among several issues, these concerns are due to the issue of migration,” reads the letter sent to Von der Leyen.
The pact reached with the government of the controversial Kais Saied is divided into five pillars focused on the economy, ecological transition and migration management. With the commitment of 150 million euros to offer immediate liquidity; also more than 300 million for renewable energy projects; and, finally, 105 million euros for border management, with the sending of equipment, such as drones and rescue boats.
Criticism has not been long in coming, with an increasingly evident authoritarian drift on the part of Saied, the Ombudsman asks the European Commission if, before signing the agreement, an impact assessment of human rights in the country was carried out and whether you intend to periodically review human rights during the implementation of the agreement. Likewise, ask the Executive if a plan has been prepared in any case to suspend financial aid if these are not respected.
The agreement was signed by Von der Leyen – who traveled to the country twice – accompanied by the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, (very interested in closing the pact when there have been more than 130,000 arrivals to its coasts in the first half of the year, according to Frontex) and his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte. A clear example of how this type of “strategic agreement” is those that until now have made the countries converge more, both those that are the main gateway of arrival (the south) and those of destination (the north).
Despite the doubts generated by the agreement, the European Commission has insisted since its signing that human rights will be respected and that, in any case, it is not a “blank check” for the Tunisian government. However, the truth is that pacts like the one reached with Tunisia are something that we want to replicate in other States, (as Von der Leyen already insisted this week in her State of the Union Speech) such as Egypt, a dictatorship governed by the General Abdel Fatah Al Sissi.
The letter sent to Von der Leyen – and which must respond within three months at most – is added to the opening of an investigation into Frontex, also by the Ombudsman, regarding its role in rescue operations in the Mediterranean, after the death of more than 400 people in a shipwreck off the Greek coast last June.
The letter from the Ombudsman coincides a few hours after Tunisia vetoed the visit of a delegation from the European Parliament that was analyzing, precisely, the agreement with the EU in addition to the democratic situation in the country. A trip planned for this week. “A decision without precedent since the democratic revolution in 2011,” condemned the delegation made up of five MEPs in a statement.
