After the agreements with Turkey and Morocco, from yesterday the European Union will also finance Tunisia to combat the arrival of migrants on its shores. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, returned to Tunisia yesterday with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the still Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, for the signing of a "strategic" memorandum of understanding. with the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, for which the EU will pay 105 million euros exclusively to combat traffickers.
The agreement also involves the sending of 150 million euros of European aid to support Tunisian budgets, according to Italian government sources. In yesterday's appearances there was no mention of the other macro-financial aid package of 900 million euros evoked during the first visit of the self-styled Europe Team to Tunisia, which could be sent to the country in the form of loans in the coming years. Von der Leyen assured that Brussels is ready to deliver this assistance when the conditions are met, pending the resolution of the clash with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which demands profound reforms from Saied and has also expressed concern about the situation. of the country's human rights to unblock a loan of 1,900 million dollars.
“We need effective cooperation more than ever. The tragic shipwreck a few weeks ago in which many people lost their lives was another call to action. We need to combat the networks of traffickers that exploit human despair and we need to overthrow their business model," said the community president in an appearance before journalists in which no questions were allowed.
Meloni, the most interested in the increase in migratory pressure in Italy due to the departures from Tunisia -1,400 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa this weekend in just 24 hours-, puffed up the compromise reached and put it as a model for cooperation with other African countries.
Team Europe already traveled to Tunisia a month ago to offer this agreement of more than 1,000 million euros, but then they were faced with the coldness of Saied, who declared that he was not going to become the "guardian of the borders" of the EU. Faced with this rejection, Von der Leyen yesterday emphasized the multiple economic aspects of the memorandum, based on other pillars such as the "promotion of contact between people" or "cooperation on green energy." The package includes the construction of the Medusa submarine cable, starting in 2025, to connect eleven European countries with Tunisia, which will cost 150 million euros, Von der Leyen said.
The signing comes a day after Saied invoked the conspiracy theory of ethnic substitution. In addition to the economic crisis, Tunisia is experiencing major clashes between the residents of Sfax, where most of the boats leaving the country for Italy leave, and sub-Saharan migrants. The president's statements speaking of "hordes of illegal immigrants" and a plan to blur the "Arab-Muslim" character of the country have set the area on fire. Humanitarian organizations have denounced attacks, robberies or the expulsion of hundreds of people to border desert areas.
