Christopher O'Connor

Working with the EU

I have just returned from a fascinating trip to Mahdia, a coastal city in southern Tunisia, with 14 other EU Ambassadors accredited to Tunisia. We often meet in Tunis to ensure we are working properly together where we need to. It is important we are on the same page on EU-Tunisian co-operation projects, progress on expanding the scope of the existing free trade arrangements and on wider political issues. And we all benefit from sharing insights and analysis.

But this was a rare opportunity to project our efforts jointly. Together we made quite a splash. Our countries represent over 70% of Tunisians imports and exports. And we had plenty of opportunity to explore how we can increase our involvement in this region of Tunisia, collectively or as individual countries. There is investment potential in Mahdia in tourism and. The government have some pretty ambitious development plans there.

The city also has a remarkable history as the capital of the Fatimid empire spreading across North Africa and beyond from the 11th century. There is a great deal about Tunisia that the many foreign visitors here tend to miss.

Posted at 19:13 18 May 2009 by Christopher O'Connor  |  Comments[1]