Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit Tunisia on Sunday, together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The delegation visits the North African country to make arrangements to combat illegal migration. The European Commission wants Tunisia to stop migrants trying to travel to Europe.
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Rutte, Meloni and Von der Leyen will speak to Tunisian president Kais Saied on Sunday about “a broad partnership” between the EU and Tunisia, with agreements on “economic cooperation, energy and migration”. This is reported by the Government Information Service. The EU wants to help Tunisia financially in exchange for stopping the many migrants crossing the Mediterranean, a construction similar to the so-called Turkey deal from 2016.
The EU has been working for years on a reform of European asylum and migration policy. In 2020, the Commission presented a package of measures to limit the influx of migrants, which was approved by the European Parliament this spring. The European Parliament and the European Commission hope that the Migration Pact will pass before next year’s European elections.