Everything is ready in Tunis for Giorgia Meloni’s lightning mission scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The Italian Prime Minister is accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, and his colleague from higher education and Research, Anna Maria Bernini.
After the meeting with the President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed, at the Palace of Carthage, Meloni will go to Brussels to participate in the European Council, on Wednesday, April 17, and Thursday, April 18.
There are at least two subjects at the center of the discussions: irregular migratory flows towards Italy, which saw a sharp increase last month, and the role that Tunisia can play in the Mattei Plan launched by the government for development. of Africa.
Meloni’s meeting with Saïed could be an opportunity to take stock of the memorandum of understanding between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia signed last July which provides, among other things, additional financial support, training, and technical support necessary to improve the management of Tunisian borders.
Discussions could also focus on the new regulation on asylum and migration management, ratified by the European Parliament on April 10, which introduces stricter rules for asylum seekers and easier expulsions to third countries from where they most often leave to reach Europe, notably Tunisia.
Training for employment
At least 16,090 migrants arrived irregularly in Italy between the start of the year and April 15, a decrease of 51.97% compared to the same period of 2023, when 33,499 people arrived by sea on the Italian coasts.
The Tunisian authorities, for their part, announced that they have intercepted at sea and brought back to land, since the start of 2024, at least 12,764 migrants, most of them citizens from sub-Saharan African countries. In total, however, Tunisian authorities claimed to have foiled 407 “illegal attempts to cross maritime borders” since the start of the year. These questions will probably be at the center of Matteo Piantedosi’s meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Kamel Feki.
Nor should we underestimate Bernini’s participation in the Italian mission. A memorandum of understanding should be signed to strengthen academic and scientific cooperation between the two countries, encourage the exchange of information between higher education establishments and research organizations, and promote the teaching of languages, literatures, cultures, and histories of the two countries. It is also about facilitating access to research infrastructures in both countries. The education sector, which is one of the five pillars of the Mattei Plan, is fundamental to defusing illegal emigration and promoting regular and controlled migratory flows.
An energy bridge
In this regard, it is appropriate to highlight the recent success of a pilot project to train around forty Tunisian workers. Indeed, to meet Italian labor needs and Tunisian employment needs, 38 young Tunisians received training in Tunisia and will be hired in Italy in construction companies active on construction sites thanks to PNRR funds. A larger project, which aims to bring 2,000 Tunisian workers to Italy over 36 months, is in its early stages and will benefit from EU funding.
For the Italian ambassador in Tunis, Alexandre Prunas, the Italian community in Tunisia, with around 900 companies active in the country, contributes “decisively to the economic growth of a friendly country” and relations between the shores of the Mediterranean “will become more and more important” with the Elmed project, the electrical interconnection by cable which will connect Cap Bon to Sicily. “Italians in Tunisia have historically been present for at least two centuries, if not more. It is an extremely active, very well-connected community, which today also contributes decisively to the economic growth of this friendly country. Let us not forget that around 900 Italian companies are operating in Tunisia, creating wealth and offering several tens of thousands of direct jobs, not counting the indirect jobs generated by the entire industry,” explained Ambassador Prunas in a recent interview with the Nova agency.
The “energy bridge” under construction between Italy and Tunisia (created for the Italian side by Terna) should be operational from 2027 and could help the North African country develop energy from renewable sources, currently stuck at a meager 4.7% of total production, including hydroelectric and wind power.
The project could also help alleviate the water crisis and encourage the development of sustainable agriculture. For the moment, it is only an idea, a reversal of perspective of the infrastructure project which will take place between the power station of Partanna, in Sicily, and that of Mlaabi, on the Cap Bon peninsula, on a total length of approximately 220 kilometers (including approximately 200 km of submarine cable), with a power of 600 MW and a maximum depth of approximately 800 meters, reached along the Sicily Channel. But it is also a real possibility, an opportunity to allow Tunisia, suffering from a chronic shortage of water resources, to develop desalination plants for the treatment of very salty water, which requires an enormous amount of electricity.
The Italian company We Build, a world leader in the construction of watermakers, could be involved in these projects aimed at combating drought and water stress.
Italy is now Tunisia’s main commercial supplier, a record that has lasted for several years. According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), exports of “Made in Italy” in this North African country amounted to 1.376 billion dinars (corresponding to approximately 411 million euros) during the first two months of the current year, down 12.8% compared to the same period of the previous year but still ahead of other competing countries.
Italian imports from Tunisia amounted to 1.965 billion Tunisian dinars (around 590 million euros), up 9.3% compared to the same two months of last year.
The balance of trade is therefore 590 million Tunisian dinars (corresponding to 176 million euros) in favor of Tunisia.
These data confirm a consolidated trend also in 2023: Rome helps Tunis overcome its economic and financial difficulties without losing its position on the market. This last theme could be on the agenda of Meloni’s mission.
Tunisia’s first trading partner, however, remains France, with an exchange value of 3.702 billion dinars (corresponding to 1.105 billion euros). But it should be emphasized that this result is due to a community of Tunisians in this European country of almost a million inhabitants (compared to around 300,000 Tunisians in Italy) who generate demand for typical products.
It is interesting to note that China appears in fourth place in the ranking of Tunisia’s economic partners, with a trade value of 1.233 billion dinars (corresponding to 368 million euros) recorded during the first two months of 2024: a composite figure for almost all Chinese exports, with a value equal to 1.222 billion dinars (which is equivalent to 365 million euros) and a balance of the balance unbalanced in favor of the Far Eastern country for 1.212 billion dinars (approximately 362 million euros).
It is also worth highlighting the notable result of Russian exports, which increased from 416 million dinars during the first two months of 2023 (124.5 million euros) to 1.045 billion dinars (310 million euros), an increase of more than 150% over one year.
It should also be noted that the latest economic indicators published by the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) show a relative improvement in GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024. Economic activity benefited, in particular, from the gradual recovery of the dynamics observed in the agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2024, after a historic contraction of 11% in 2023, which subtracted more than a percentage point from annual economic growth.
Additionally, growth in merchandise exports and tourist arrivals in the first two months of this year contributed to the growth. It is no coincidence that the rating agency Moody’s recently upgraded Tunisia’s outlook from “negative” to “stable”, while maintaining a long-term foreign and local currency rating of “Caa2” (very high credit risk).
