Tunis on Thursday refused entry to its territory to five elected representatives of the European Parliament, who in return denounced the stance of the very authoritarian President Kaïs Saïed, despite an agreement signed in July.
They won’t even have left yet. Despite being scheduled to travel to Tunis on Thursday 14 September, five members of the European Parliament were refused entry to Tunisian territory. The Tunisian authorities have not yet given any reasons for their decision and are content to send a sober letter to the delegation on Wednesday.
On site, the five representatives of the Foreign Affairs Committee – including three Frenchmen – had the task of “better understanding the current political situation”. But also an inventory of the agreement on migration flows signed between the European Union and Tunisia in mid-July. Led by German MP Michael Gahler (EPP, Christian Democrat), the delegation had planned to meet members of civil society, trade unionists and representatives of the Tunisian opposition.
The Strasbourg representatives, who were denied entry, denounced on Thursday an “unprecedented attitude since the democratic revolution of 2011” and demanded a “detailed explanation” from Tunis. The Tunisian authorities’ decision is having a difficult time in Strasbourg. By denying access to European representatives, President Kaïs Saïed “believes that he has the power to choose his interlocutors among Europeans and believes that he does not need the people’s representatives to receive the hundreds of millions that Ursula wants from him that Leyen had promised,” protested MP Mounir Satouri (Greens), a member of the delegation.
For its part, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament called for the “immediate” suspension of the “Migration Partnership”. Among the concerns is that the European Union is proving powerless against Tunis, as both parties are bound to sign the agreement. “It is a model that makes us dependent on autocratic systems that can then blackmail us,” complained French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann (Socialists and Democrats Group). In his direction, elected French official Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe) deplored the “path to blackmail”.
The diplomatic incident not only provokes the anger of MPs, but above all fuels debates about the migration partnership. The partnership between the European Union and Tunisia, signed with great fanfare in July, aims to “combat irregular immigration”. Concerned about the increase in the number of arrivals, particularly in Italy, the EU has allocated an amount of 105 million euros to help Tunisia strengthen control of its borders. The agreement includes the supply of boats, mobile radars, cameras and vehicles, as well as increased cooperation in combating smuggling networks.
Controversial migration agreement
But two months after it was signed, the plan is anything but unanimous among MPs. On Tuesday, during a heated debate in the European Parliament, some of them did not hesitate to express their strong opposition. On the Green Party side, Dutchwoman Tineke Strik denounced a “dirty deal with the irreconcilable dictator Saied” and pointed to the head of state’s authoritarian tendencies and xenophobic speeches. However, on the right and far right, we consider the implementation of the partnership to be insufficient to reduce the number of arrivals in Europe.
During her State of the Union address on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tried as best as she could to defend the agreement that she herself signed in Tunis last July. Citing a “model for similar partnerships in the future,” the president assured that the plan had led to an increase in boat interception and rescue operations.
But more than 7,000 people from North Africa landed in Lampedusa, one of the main gateways to Europe, on Tuesday and Wednesday, as many as the local population on that island, which declared a state of emergency.