President Giorgia Meloni meets Libyan PM Abdulhamid Dabaiba
Waiting for a pact on repatriation: Tunisia “safe third country” for expelled refugees
Lightning mission EU-Italy-Netherlands to Tunis to discuss cooperation in the field of economy, energy, but above all migrants. The premier Giorgia Melonithe President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte they will be in the North African country and will have a meeting at the presidential palace in Tunis with the Tunisian president Kais Saied.
Probably, Commission sources saythere will be a talk of the three leaders also with the prime minister. Finally, a statement to the press by the three before the conclusion of the short trip: in the late afternoon von der Leyen will leave for the planned mission in Latin America.
The discussions will focus “on bilateral relations between the EU and Tunisia. A cooperation agreement on the economy, energy and migration will be at the center of the discussions”, announced the spokesman of the European Commission, Eric Mamer, in recent days. This does not mean that “there will be a conclusion of an agreement, but there will be discussions on the agreement”, he specified.
Meloni returns to Tunisia just five days after his previous visit, with two changes compared to last week: the financial assistance plan from Brussels to Tunis, announced by the EU commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni and which should amount to 900 million euros, and the agreement reached by the 27 in Luxembourg on the new Pact on migration, which establishes the possibility of identifying ‘safe third countries’ to which to send migrants expelled from European territory.
Tunisia is a candidate to be one of the countries in question. “I am working on the dossier every day – Meloni said yesterday – and on Sunday we will go to Tunis with von der Leyen and Rutte. Thanks to the very valuable work that Italy has done and thanks to my mission last Tuesday, the first aid package from the European Commission, which is also preparatory to favoring an agreement with the IMF”.
From Brussels comes the EU’s support for the Italian attempt: in addition to the presence of tomorrow’s von der Leyen, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, Meloni heard expressing “appreciation for Italy’s commitment to Tunisia. The EU supports Italy’s efforts to strengthen cooperation with Tunisia”, added Michel. But Tunisia’s situation does not seem so reliable at the moment.
Beyond the social and economic tensions, linked to the crisis but also to the tightening on democratic rights and practicability imposed by Saied in recent years, the Tunisian president himself after the meeting with Meloni five days ago, had defined “unacceptable” the fact that Tunisia could become a country of “passage for immigrants who settle there regularly” “outside any legal framework”.
The mission therefore, in the intentions of Meloni, von der Leyen and Rutte, is to put pressure on Kais Saied to soften his position, so that something moves on the Tunis-Washington axis and that an agreement is found on the financing of the IMF which would help the Tunisian economy, avoiding the collapse of its public finances, and would unblock other channels of support that could come from other countries.
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