Belgium involved in Tunisia-EU Mobility Partnership

Tunisia and the EU today formally established a Mobility Partnership. Together with nine other EU Member States, Belgium is involved in the Partnership and signed the joint Declaration.

Background information

The EU and Tunisia began a Dialogue on Migration, Mobility and Security in October 2011, and negotiations on the Political Declaration for the EU-Tunisia Mobility Partnership were finalised on 13 November 2013.

EU Tunisia Mobility Partnership

The joint declaration was signed on 3 March 2014 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 Mobility Partnership inter alia includes the following commitments:

- open 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 in the EU
- encourage better integration of Tunisian nationals legally living in the EU and of migrants legally living in Tunisia
- strengthen the role of Tunisian communities abroad involved in the development of Tunisia
- open negotiations on an agreement for the readmission of irregular migrants
- better cooperate to prevent human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants and to improve the security of identity and travel documents and border management
- 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

Please find detailed information the Political Declaration itself and in the European Commission press release.

Concerns raised about the Mobility Partnership

The EU Tunisia Mobility Partnership has raised concerns among civil society actors, especially regarding the "externalization of borders" and negotiations in view of a readmission agreement.

Signatory organizations, both Tunisian and international organizations, inter alia call EU Member States involved in the Partnership to refrain from returning irregular migrants to Tunisia, especially asylum seekers, which would involve possible violations of international commitments. Signatory organizations also deplore the lack of reference to family reunification issues, despite their relevance to families on both sides of the Medietrranean.

Please read the joint press release "Tunisia-Eu Mobility Partnership: a Forced March towards the Externalization of Borders".

Publication Date: Mon 03 Mar 2014
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