Tunisia is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), revised in 2015, alongside 15 other
countries from Southern and Eastern neighbouring regions, and beneficiary from the European
Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
Although the Euro-Mediterranean relationship under previous guises was slightly impeded or
besmirched at some point by its dependency to the old Tunisian regime1, now, due to its role at the
forefront of the democratic movement in the region, post-2011 Tunisia enjoys a relatively privileged
status amongst the MENA countries in general, and in the Maghreb in particular2. A “privileged
partnership” was established in 20123. This place was confirmed in 2016 by the Joint communication
to the European Parliament and the Council: “Strengthening EU support for Tunisia”4. European days
have been organised in 2016. In November of this same year, the HR/VP Federica Mogherini payed a
visit to Tunis, and the EU Commissioner for ENP, Johannes Hahn, attended the conference “Tunisia
2020”. In December 2016, the Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi went to Brussels to sign the “EUTunisia
Youth Partnership”.
Tunisia is one of the top beneficiaries of EU regional programmes for the Southern neighbourhood, in
areas such as environment, energy, migration and security. The support to Tunisia amounted to 250
million € in 2016, and to 300 million € in 2017. The EU’s support to Tunisia encompasses many
domains: economic reforms, private sector, employability, vocational training, schools, higher
education, health, agriculture and rural development, decentralisation and regional development,
environment and energy, transportation, governance, justice, security, human rights and civil society,
gender equality, media and culture, migration and mobility, cross-border cooperation
