The EU’s migration trio is headed back to Tunisia.
EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen will join Italian leader Giorgia Meloni and her Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, in Tunisia on Sunday in a bid to unblock a stalled deal with the country to limit migrant departures.
The EU has been trying to finalize an agreement with Tunisia since June, when von der Leyen, Meloni and Rutte traveled to the country to meet Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed. The deal would see the EU provide cash to Tunisia in exchange for stronger border controls.
“We hope to wrap up the discussions we kicked off in June,” the European Commission’s deputy spokesperson Dana Spinant said at a daily media briefing on Friday.
Von der Leyen announced in June that the EU is ready to provide Tunisia with over €1 billion in different areas, including trade, investment and energy cooperation. But negotiations have since slowed, with diplomats failing to strike a deal before a late June EU leaders’ summit as they had hoped.
The main hurdle is that the bulk of financial assistance is tied to Tunisia ratifying a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which Saïed has repeatedly opposed.
The Commission has also promised €105 million in border management aid that is not tied to the IMF loan approval. But Saïed stressed in June that his country would not accept becoming a border guard for other countries.
