The European Union has set out a record financial assistance package of €305 million in order to foster youth development, entrepreneurship and to provide better living conditions for young people in Tunisia.
Part of the financing will be deployed for three main programmes:
- The “Youth in Action” programme (€60 million), whose aim is to improve economic, political, and social inclusion of the most vulnerable among Tunisian youth. This will be done by developing the skills and competences of the youngsters (in order to facilitate their access to the job market), by investing in culture and sport and, eventually, by improving policy participation of young people at the local level.
- The “EU4Innovation” programme (€15 million), whose aim is to strenghten and structure the Tunisian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem by improving the possibilities for start-ups and entrepreneurs and by the implementation of an enabling regulatory environment for innovative entrepreneurship and start-ups.
- The “Support to local governance” programme (€70 million), for boosting
local development and reduce regional and local disparities as part of its decentralisation process. This last will imply the improvement of living conditions for the locals, that means the guarantee of basic services; the boosting of steakeholders’ capacities; and, eventually, the
analysis and dissemination of good practices.
The other key economic sectors, such as the private one, urban development, culture and tourism, together with the modernisation of Tunisian public administration, will be boosted with the rest of the availbale funding – €160 million.
This is the highest financial contribution that the EU has ever allocated for Tunisia under the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). For the long-term period 2014-20, the funding allocated for the ENI amounted to €15 billion.
All of this is part of a set of initiatives that fall within the framework of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, for which the negotiations are still ongoing.
