Belgium involved in EU and Tunisia Mobility Partnership

Tunisia and the EU today formally established a Mobility Partnership. Belgium is one of the ten EU Member States involved in the Partnership.

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Today, a joint declaration was signed by Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Mr Tahar Cherif, Tunisian Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, and the Ministers of the ten EU Member States involved in the Partnership: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The declaration, inter alia, aims to:

In terms of mobility, regular migration and integration:

  • Simplify procedures for Tunisian citizens to access and stay on the EU territory, including negotiations on an agreement to facilitate the procedures for issuing visas.
  • Improve the information available to qualified Tunisian citizens on employment, education and training opportunities available in the EU and also make mutual recognition of professional and university qualifications easier.
  • Encourage better integration of Tunisian nationals legally living in the EU and of migrants legally living in Tunisia.

In terms of irregular migration, trafficking in human beings, readmission, identity and travel documents security and border management:

  • Develop cooperation and open negotiations on an agreement for the readmission of irregular migrants
  • Better cooperate to prevent human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants
  • Improve the security of identity and travel documents and border management.

In terms of migration and development:

  • Maximise the impact of migration on development, especially by strengthening the role of Tunisian communities abroad involved in the development of Tunisia.

In terms of asylum and international protection:

  • Support the establishment and strengthening of the Tunisian authorities that will be responsible for identifying those migrants on their territory who are eligible for international protection, processing their asylum applications, applying the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ to them and providing them with lasting protection arrangements.
Publication Date: Mon 03 Mar 2014
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