Address by B&eacute;ji Ca&iuml;d ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia in&nbsp;the formal sitting&nbsp;of the EP in Brussels.

Brussels

EU - Tunisia (T)

speech

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

formal sitting

CAID ESSEBSI, Beji (TN)

Address by Beji Caïd ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia: extracts from the formal sitting

Arrival of Beji B&eacute;ji Ca&iuml;d ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, to the Chamber, accompanied by EP President Martin SCHULZ.

SOUNDBITE (French), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, You can be sure of our commitment to stand alongside Tunisia, its young people, its population and its authorities.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, Tunisia today looks to you with anew face; our people have fought for a democratic process in our country. As you know we have now a modern Constitution for a civilian state. We have a majority Muslim population and we think that Islam well known and well-practiced is by no means incompatible with democracy, moreover it is very much the means for our country of traveling down this path. Applause.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, Besides the progress made on human rights and democracy, Tunisia faces major socio economic and security challenges. We are the only country to your South which has embarked in a political and economic transformation process while at the same time fighting terrorism tooth and nail.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, For our economy to re-start, for the reforms to pick up pace, I took the initiative of setting up a national unity government, a government of able young people, including many women. The most important posts in Tunisian at the moment are held by women. Applause

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, Tunisia considers the EU as its principle partner and its principle source of support at this delicate time.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, Tunisia is a target for the terrorist because its democratic and socio-cultural model is diametrically opposed to their obscurantism vision. We are resolute to combat this scourge which attacks blindly irrespective of race or religion. Tunisia is in the very vanguard of the fight against terrorism and deserves support for its efforts. Our success in this fight will have a positive spinoff for Europe&rsquo;s own security.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beji CAID ESSEBSI, President of Tunisia, A strong, prosperous, democratic Tunisia will stabilize the European Union&rsquo;s southern fringe; this is the message of trust, the message of friendship that I come with to the EP. Allow me to extent my warmest thanks to the EP for giving me this opportunity to address its honourable Members and through them the people you represent. And I hope many of them will come to visit our free and democratic Tunisia because our security situation is very much that of Europe these days. Standing ovation. Than you I see you have understood my message.