Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-14-Speech-3-205"
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"en.20000614.8.3-205"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have just come back from Tunisia where, for a time, I was the guest of a Member of the Tunisian Government, and on no occasion did I see evidence of any of the points which have been mentioned during this debate. I did, however, see a country which is firmly committed to modernisation and I witnessed the great enthusiasm with which the sectors of environmental development, land reclamation, agriculture, tourism and the construction of large infrastructures are being identified.
I saw that they are attempting to boost their economy in order to avoid further migration which could certainly affect relations between the Mediterranean countries and the countries which are now part of the same European Union as well. I personally witnessed cultural exchanges taking place between universities and saw that the country is regaining a strong cultural identity and is committed to restoring historic town centres, rural tourism and craft trades.
I noted the high level of involvement of schools in educational programmes with a series of interdisciplinary activities. And I saw absolutely no evidence pointing to an absence of associationism. On the contrary: very strong, living associationism exists between young people and women, in particular, and there is also a remarkable spirit of partnership between institutions.
I learned from a question that we are lamenting the fact that the local press refuses to report cases of human rights abuse. If this is so and censorship is taking place, it means that the freedom of the press does exist there, to the extent that the local press can even refuse to report any of Tunisia’s positions which do deny human rights.
Well then, I do not feel that the situation is so bad. Rather, I suspect that the European Union is taking political action against not just Tunisia but also the Balkan countries, for example, in deciding to provide greater or lesser financial incentives for the countries depending on the internal policy adjustments which the countries can guarantee.
This would indeed be an operation totally removed from the real meaning of applied and shared democracy; it would have very little to do with human rights and still less to do with relations between potential enlargement countries and the European Union itself."@en1
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