The Foreign Ministry, Tunisia credit dates back to 2017, surprised by controversy

With regard to some of the controversies raised in the last few hours, the Foreign Ministry points out that this is not a donation, nor a gift, but a credit (aid) of 50 million euros, which is part of the broader Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Tunisia signed in 2017, thus three years ago. In addition, the financing contract was finalised on 18th March 2019, at the same time as the signing of the Italy-Tunisia intergovernmental agreement on the resources of the Revolving Fund for Development Cooperation (pursuant to Law 125/2014), of which CDP is the operator that supports private investment in the agricultural sector and in the social and solidarity-based economy sector.
This is the implementation of a bilateral agreement that came into force in March 2019 and, in this regard, instrumentalizations of the agreement are quite surprising. Therefore, it is easy to see that the purpose of the credit, precisely because it is linked to 2017agreements, could in no way be linked to the COVID-19 emergency, but to a programme to support Tunisian SMEs defined at intergovernmental level in the first half of last year.
It is a programme of support, as there are many others and of which, it should be remembered, the Italian entrepreneurial fabric active in the territory also benefits indirectly.