1: European Union Fears Collapse

On Monday, 20th March, European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stated that Tunisia’s social or economic collapse is a plausible future. After a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels he feared that if this collapse does happen in the near future a new wave of immigrants will leave on boats to find asylum in Europe and the MENA region would become even more economically unstable.

Tunisia’s economic status has gone from already bad to worse in the past 2 years. Covid-19 along with the Russo–Ukraine war took its toll on the economy of the North African country. Soaring energy prices, economic inflation and the cost of the pandemic all made long-term detrimental impacts on the economy.

Locals from the country claim that even during the pandemic the markets would stay open for 3 hours a day, which is better than it is now.

European Union :

Rising cost of living as well as food prices have surpassed salaries and average incomes of most households, leading to most of the populace being forced to cut back.

The International Monetary Fund offered Tunisia a $1.9 billion rescue package which was supposed to be finalised by December 2022. The sentiment at the time was to acquire funds internationally and finance the agricultural industry of Tunisia.

Independent non-profit organisations like the Food Sovereignty Working Group claimed that the president was unaware of just how bad the food shortage was, that the populace was on the brink of starvation.

However that deal has not yet happened, European UnionEuropean UnionEuropean UnionEuropean Union, national authorities under the Tunisian president Kais Saied have been stalling this deal for months.

The diplomats at the time mentioned that many donors felt discouraged as Tunisia did not follow through on the promised reforms on past loan agreements.

The European Union foreign ministers asked Belgium and Portugal to send representatives to Tunisia on a mission to assess the situation and allow the European Union to direct its measures.

He went on to say that the International Monetary Fund must implement the agreement and the Tunisian president must sign it as the situation in Tunisia will only get worse if the loan isn’t provided.

Italy is the leading country in its campaign to have Tunisia receive this loan, since Tunisia has surpassed the failed state of Libya in the number of migrant boats that depart to gain asylum in Italy.

On the letterhead for the EU summit later this week in Brussels, European Commission president Von der Leyen said that they are willing to mobilize up to £110m for North Africa to discourage migrants from taking unsafe boat trips to Europe.

On July 25, 2021, Tunisian president Kais Saied gave himself absolute administrative powers and has since signed off on many arrests. The opposition parties claim that an authoritative mindset is destroying the freshly formed democracy of Tunisia that only arose after the Arab Spring revolution of 2011.

Urgent Tunisian response and acceptance of the International Monetary Fund is vital to avoiding economic and social collapse and further destabilization of the MENA region.