Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-29-Speech-4-182"
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"en.20050929.24.4-182"2
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".
Mr President, the European Commission is devoting great attention to the human rights situation in Tunisia and is using all the means at its disposal to encourage the Tunisian authorities to make progress in this area.
We are particularly concerned at the breaches of fundamental freedoms, such as the freedoms of expression, association and assembly. The European Commission, notably on the basis of the provisions of Article 2 of the Association Agreement, has systematically raised the importance of respecting human rights at the highest level in a bilateral context with the Tunisian authorities, including at the last meeting of the Association Council held on 31 January 2005.
The European Commission delegation in Tunis is closely monitoring the worrying situation regarding the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights, the significant difficulties faced by a number of other NGOs and professional associations, as well as the independence of the judiciary. Direct and regular contact is maintained with the different sectors of Tunisian civil society and the Tunisian authorities to overcome the current difficulties.
The Commission fully participates in the EU démarches to support human rights in Tunisia, notably the recent EU Declaration and the Troika démarche on the obstruction of the activities of the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights.
The entry into force of the EU-Tunisia Neighbourhood Action Plan marked an important step forward, since it includes extensive commitments in the fields of human rights, democracy and governance. It establishes as priority actions the pursuit and consolidation of reforms guaranteeing democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the independence and efficiency of the judiciary and, most important of all, it provides for the creation of a human rights sub-committee where compliance with these commitments will be assessed and monitored. The establishment of an institutional dialogue framework of this kind, which is expected to be in place by the end of the year, should enable human rights to be discussed in a more structured manner.
Concerning the reform of the judiciary, a MEDA project on the modernisation of justice is being finalised with a view to specifically addressing the existing shortcomings and the need for better access to justice.
A number of human rights-related projects are also being funded in Tunisia under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. Most of these are experiencing serious problems in their implementation, as the Tunisian authorities are deliberately blocking access to EU funding for NGOs, including the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights. All efforts by the European Commission to unblock this situation have been unsuccessful so far.
I should like to reassure you that the European Commission will continue its efforts to ensure that the human rights provisions of the Association Agreement and of the EU-Tunisia Action Plan are duly implemented, as well as to impress upon the Tunisian authorities the need to allow NGO access to EU funding."@en1
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