Month: October 2017

The president of the European Parliament proposed Monday the establishment of a “Marshall Plan” that would facilitate economic and social development in Africa and thereby reduce the flow of migrants toward Europe. At the start of a two-day official visit to Tunisia, Antonio Tajani also insisted that cooperation with North African coastal nations on issues such as terrorism, border control and de-radicalization was key to European security. Evoking the program – named for Secretary of State George Marshall – that saw the United States pour billions of dollars into Western…

To better protect State properties in the country, a Code for public properties in being elaborated in Tunisia. The first draft of this code “which aims at regrouping and improving all laws related to organization and management of State properties” is, according to the minister of State properties and land affairs, Mabrouk Kourchid, already elaborated and will “soon” be examined by a cabinet meeting. “The minister stressed on the need to manage properly State property, in transparency, adding that the public properties code will be a key achievement for Tunisia. The cabinet…

India and Tunisia today agreed to jointly combat terrorism and extremism while ramping up cooperation in the field of security. A review of bilateral ties was undertaken as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 12th India- Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui. During the meeting, the two sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest. Six agreements in the fields of judicial cooperation, cooperation in youth issues, information and communications technology, trade and business, were also signed. To give a new impetus to…

President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani reiterated, Monday morning, at the House of People’s Representative, Europe’s commitment to security cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean, underlining the important geopolitical role played by Tunisia in the fight against terrorism. He recalled that one of the first setbacks suffered by the terrorist organisation “Daech” intervened in southern Tunisia in the Ben Guerdane delegation in March 2016. Tajani stressed the need to work for the stabilisation of Libya, commending the initiative of President Béji Caïd Essebsi for a comprehensive political…

The heated discussions on amnesty reflected two vying visions of how to deal with the past. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has signed into law an amnesty measure benefiting Ben Ali-era civil servants, ending a long, heated debate about the legislation. The bill had been initiated by Caid Essebsi to energise growth and shore up political stability. Dubbed the “administrative recon­ciliation law,” the legislation grants amnesty to senior civil servants from the government of former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who assumed the presidency in November 1987 and was toppled…