As the EU Commission made it known that it had sent €60 million aid to Tunisia this week, in a proffered deal for Tunisia to restrict migrants, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry stated that it has given no authorization to cash the check. At the same time, the Tunisian Presidency reiterated its position: “Our country will deal with its partners on a parity level, in a framework of reciprocal respect.” In the course of this latest exchange, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has again raised the necessity for development in Africa.
Since EU-Tunisia talks in July, including a personal visit by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU has been prevaricating, back-peddling, and even denouncing Tunisia for two months, while demanding Tunisia restrict the flow of immigrants crossing over into Europe.
But Prime Minister Meloni has come out and endorsed Tunisian President Kais Saied’s new statement. “Saied says in different tones something that I understand and have sometimes said myself, and that is that we cannot believe that our relationship with North African countries is to pay to hold back illegal migration,” Meloni told journalists on the sidelines of a EU meeting in Spain yesterday. “The partnership-based relationship we need is a completely different relationship and it is mainly about development. Tunisia has a problem not unlike ours: While they are doing their part to try to fight the traffickers, to try to stop immigration to Europe, however, there is illegal migration coming to them every day and if we don’t help them with development projects, with a strategic partnership as equals it will be difficult to do serious thinking. I think President Saied means this.”
