tunisia after 14 january and its social and political economy - Refworld

factory for the Tunisian Chemical Group, a modern plant built to the highest environmentalstandards (140 million euros) and the implementation of an extensive road modernizationprogram across the country (163 million euros). 97 However, this announced increase inEuropean commitment is again partly illusory and operates more as an incentive: the1.87 billion actually include funds already available and projects already signed in 2010which have been ratified only this year. So the commitments of the EIB in 2011 shouldeventually reach the same level as in previous years (about 450 million euros per yearover 2007-2009, and 500 million in 2010). The green light for other projects planned or setup 98 remains conditional on changes in the socio-political situation of Tunisia, includinga more explicit commitment from directors of public companies or clearer definitions ofeconomic guidelines at government level, while a certain number of measures for shorttermrecovery depend more on the logic of subsidy (aid for job creation, the financingof local communities in trouble).The definition of a real short-term stimulus package thus seems constrained by acombination of factors: a government that favours budget support and claims it cannotcurrently define a new strategy; European partners who cannot commit to new projectsin the absence of any definition of clear directions from the Tunisian government; aidprocedures with budgetary support, which take at least a year and half or even more;emergency assistance that comes in derisory amounts; and loans that cannot becommitted to except for long-term projects.II.1.D.Focusing on corruption, which prevents a rethinking of the politicaleconomy of intervention60As we have said, in public debate, the analysis of corruption is limited to clan participationin projects and domestic and foreign investment and to the products of this predation, tothe funds transferred abroad and committed to financial or property investments (in France,Switzerland and the Gulf countries and even elsewhere in Latin America and Asia). This explainsthat the main measures taken in the fight against corruption have hitherto related to thesealing of movable and immovable property and the freezing of assets in Tunisia and abroadbelonging to the different ‘clans’. This also helps explain why the Commission on the fight againstcorruption and embezzlement primarily handles requests coming from the country’s economicelite which relate to the land in the well-off suburbs around Tunis and participation or abuses inlarge enterprises. This corruption endemic to the ‘clans’ is often presented as the source of theevils in the Tunisian economy, reducing Tunisian dynamism by several points of GDP. Internationalpartners, first and foremost the Europeans, adopt this discourse without questioning it, as in thereport that says that ‘we must know that without the family’s grip on the economy, the annualgrowth rate of Tunisia would have been 7% instead of 4% at present, a loss of 36,000 jobs peryear. In addition, funds invested abroad would amount to 60% of the state budget. 9997 Interviews, Luxembourg, April and May 2011.98 Public projects, for example, especially in the sector of cleaning, energy and road infrastructures;credit lines for the support fund for local communities; the financing of new STEG projects, etc.99 Report of the European Parliament delegation, p. 15. The authors of the report do not give any sourcefor these assessments.