Mr President, I should like first of all to welcome Moncef Marzouhi, spokesman for the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia, and Khemmaïs Ksila, from the Tunisian League for Human Rights, who are present in this Chamber. Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I, together with other Members of this Parliament, have spared no effort to ensure that this debate was held. Why should we discuss Tunisia? This is not a question of interference, as that country’s future is in the hands of its citizens. What we wish to do is open people’s eyes to the hidden reality of Tunisia and to shoulder the responsibilities that are incumbent on the European Union, which is linked to that country by an association agreement that was signed five years ago now. The hunger strike by the journalist Taoufik Ben Brik lifted a corner of the veil that conceals the lack of press freedom and the persecution of the men and women with alternative views to those of the regime of President Ben Ali. No, Tunisia is not the smiling land trumpeted in the advertisements aimed at the 4 million European tourists who go there every year. Tunisia also comprises militants fighting for human rights, women fighting for democracy, students who are spied on, harassed, and deprived of their telephones, passports, sometimes even of the freedom to travel within Tunisian territory. An administrative action, which, on the face of it, is quite commonplace, becomes a genuine political fight. This is what happens, for example, to the militants of RAID, the Tunisian branch of the ATTAC movement – the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens – whose association is not allowed to exist, and three of whose members have been held in prison. Tunisia has also become a judicial system that is controlled from above. Militants are imprisoned and tortured. I still remember the suffering endured by young Nourredine, whom I met when four of us visited Tunis a month ago. Nourredine was tortured and kept in prison for more than 20 months simply for having organised a strike at the university. Fortunately, in the last few weeks, several prisoners have been released and passports have been returned. In short, I would like to see the Tunisian authorities express the will to take account of the calls for democracy. If measurable progress is to be made, however, more must be done, much more. Hundreds of prisoners of conscience, who are locked up in intolerable conditions, must be released. Organisations that are not recognised, such as the RAID and the TNLF, must be decriminalised, and the cases against the three leaders of the RAID, whose trial will be held on 27 June, must be dropped. Let us therefore not weaken in our support for those who are taking action to condemn a police state. The desire for freedom has, moreover, become so unbearable to some parties that they, sometimes with violence, try to prevent public meetings about freedom in Tunisia, even in France. I witnessed this myself around a week ago in Paris. Such acts within the European Union itself are quite unacceptable. We must therefore point out that the association agreement, which contains a clause on respecting human rights, the non-observance of which can lead to suspension, is not being respected today. I urge all honourable Members to vote in favour of the compromise resolution and I particularly urge the Council and the Commission to implement all the methods provided for in the agreement to ensure that democratic freedoms are respected, by involving civil society and preparing if needs be, for this agreement to be suspended. To conclude, the economic policy set by the Tunisian government, which gives liberal experts the impression that it is a model student, is under threat from various social forces. The partnership proposed by the European Union, which is essentially based on free trade, is liable to exacerbate the harmful effects on the population to the extent that, as the parliamentary delegation for relations with the Maghreb noted, the association agreement is considered to be harmful by all Tunisian organisations, in both the public and the private sectors. I therefore urge the Commission to review the European Union’s Mediterranean policy in the light of its economic and social consequences for the Tunisian economy and for employment there.

Political group: GUE-NGL