EU Statement on Tunisia and Egypt

State­ment by the EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ash­ton on Tunisia
Cather­ine Ash­ton, the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy and Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion, made the fol­low­ing state­ment today :
“I spoke ear­li­er today with the new­ly appoint­ed Tunisian Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Ounaies.

I con­grat­u­lat­ed the Min­is­ter on his appoint­ment and con­firmed the EU’s sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Tunisian peo­ple in their efforts to build a sta­ble and plu­ral­is­tic democ­ra­cy with full respect for the rule of law and fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms. I expressed the EU’s hope that the tran­si­tion­al Gov­ern­ment will be able to orga­nize free and fair demo­c­ra­t­ic par­lia­men­tary and pres­i­den­tial elec­tions as soon as pos­si­ble. I wel­comed the lib­er­a­tion of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and I stressed that free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion and legal­iza­tion of all polit­i­cal par­ties are key com­po­nents for the transition.

I con­firmed the EU’s readi­ness to pro­vide its assis­tance and exper­tise for the prepa­ra­tion and orga­ni­za­tion of the elec­toral process and polit­i­cal reforms. I under­scored the need to help and empow­er the civ­il soci­ety. The EU will review and update its strat­e­gy and assis­tance. I also empha­sised the EU’s com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue our eco­nom­ic coop­er­a­tion and the need for investors to redou­ble their con­fi­dence in Tunisia.

Min­is­ter Ounaies and I agreed to meet in the com­ing days.

The Tunisian For­eign Min­is­ter wel­comed the EU’s engage­ment and the offer to accom­pa­ny his country’s tran­si­tion towards democ­ra­cy with assistance.” 

State­ment by the EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ash­ton on Egypt

Cather­ine Ash­ton, the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy and Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion, made today the fol­low­ing state­ment:
“I have fol­lowed very close­ly and with pro­found con­cern the reports of increased vio­lence, clash­es and arrests dur­ing today’s demon­stra­tions in Egypt.

The con­tin­ued use of force against demon­stra­tors by police and state secu­ri­ty forces is deeply trou­bling. In order to avoid fur­ther dete­ri­o­ra­tion of the sit­u­a­tion in Cairo and else­where in Egypt, and to avoid more casu­al­ties, I reit­er­ate my call on all par­ties to exer­cise restraint and calm and I urge the author­i­ties to imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly release all peace­ful demon­stra­tors from detention.

I also reit­er­ate my call upon the Egypt­ian author­i­ties to urgent­ly estab­lish a con­struc­tive and peace­ful way to respond to the legit­i­mate aspi­ra­tions of Egypt­ian cit­i­zens for demo­c­ra­t­ic and socioe­co­nom­ic reforms.

I will dis­cuss these devel­op­ments with my col­leagues in the For­eign Affairs Coun­cil meet­ing on Mon­day in Brussels.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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