Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-13-Speech-2-185"
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"en.20060613.25.2-185"2
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".
Mr President, today’s debate is a repeat of the one that we held exactly six months ago, on 13 December 2005. The Presidency concluded its speech back then in the same manner as today’s speech. I quote: ‘It is now time for us to look forward to the implementation by the Tunisian authorities of the commitments made by President Ben Ali. Implementation of these commitments will be an essential element in developing EU-Tunisia relations'.
Since then, steps have indeed been taken by the European Union, but those steps have clearly shown their limits. The deployment of Tunisian police officers and their violent behaviour – which I have witnessed first-hand – prevented the Congress of the Tunisian Human Rights League from being held at the end of May, but not, Mr Busuttil, as a result of a court ruling, given that 32 court actions have been taken against the LTDH. This is well and truly a case of legal harassment. The funds allocated to the associations are still frozen. A great many independent NGOs and political parties are still being denied the right to exist. The judiciary is still being repressed. Mr Abou is still in prison, and the harassment directed towards not only him, but also towards his wife, takes place on a daily basis.
You have announced to us, Mr Winkler, that an Association Committee will meet in July. Is that the response to the formal request made by the European Parliament, in December, for an urgent meeting of the Association Committee aimed at looking into the priority issue of human rights in Tunisia?
That being the case, it is quite logical that the Tunisian authorities are acting with a growing sense of impunity. I will turn once again to you, Mr Winkler: how might one justify the fact that the Austrian representative did not even think it useful to travel to the Congress, and that he clearly did everything in his power to hamper the action taken by the European Union on the ground? Only two Member States were present at the Congress of the LTDH.
Finally, I must emphasise the so-called ‘reform and justice' project. The Tunisian authorities have just succeeded in passing a project establishing a lawyers’ training institute against the unanimous opinion of the Bar Council. The Tunisian authorities still refuse, to this day, to authorise the visit of a United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, while the magistrates’ association has simply been disbanded and replaced. How can we believe, under these circumstances, that the Tunisian authorities have the slightest intention of safeguarding the independence of the judicial system?
Commissioner, I believe that we must suspend this entire project in order to review it and that we must make the completion of the project and the payment of EU funds subject to certain conditions."@en1
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