Meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) in the EP in Brussels, with Youssef CHAHED, Tunisian Prime Minister.

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

EU - Tunisia (T)

CHAHED, Youssef (TN)

Exchange of views with Youssef CHAHED, Tunisian Prime Minister: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

SOUNDBITE (French), Youssef CHAHED, Prime Minister of Tunisia, On the 6th May there will be the municipal elections which will kick off the process of decentralisation. The Constitution talks about a decentralised State and this is the starting shot really for this, a major challenge, and it may change entirely the way in which Tunisia develops.

SOUNDBITE (French), Youssef CHAHED, Prime Minister of Tunisia , There will remain cautious threats out there all the time: the return of foreign fighters is something that always will involve a risk and additional risk let&rsquo;s say. We are developing a lot of legal instruments to deal with these threats, in 2015 we voted for a law, an anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering law to set out a framework to deal with all these challenges.

SOUNDBITE (French), Youssef CHAHED, Concerning the black lists, that created a sort on incomprehension by the Tunisians. The code of conduct on GAFI (Groupe d&rsquo;Action Financiere) is something that we are working on, we are hoping that in the plenary of November we might able to make head way and that we are no longer on that black list anymore, we are hopefully on the grey list either.

SOUNDBITE (French), Youssef CHAHED, Concerning the security cooperation, Tunisia has a great deal of expertise in terms anti-terrorism and we want to tighten our relationship, because cooperation is extremely and can always be improved in terms of intelligence, exchange of information.

SOUNDBITE (French), Arnaud DANJEAN (EPP, FR), Sometimes we bring too much pressure on Tunisia by imposing the best example, really the first thing you need to do is to work for your people and your country. And I think sometimes we bring additional pressure to bear by saying that you should be an example.

SOUNDBITE (French), Marie-Christine VERGIAT (GUE/NGL, FR), There a number of us that would have preferred that there would be a true partnership agreement not just an economic one, many of us would stress the danger this agreement for Tunisian agriculture.

SOUNDBITE (French), Florent MARCELLESI (VERTS, ES), It is the only country in the Maghreb that is on a true transition to democracy, in a very complex transformation. We are sometimes shocked when certain parts of the EU treating Tunisia as it were just among many neighbours and not to recognise the status of a country on a democratic transition.