Roula Khalaf
Financial Times
January 19, 2011
How did the world get Tunisia so wrong? Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali was not just another Arab autocrat – he was a star in Europe, a leader admired for developing the economy and maintaining stability in the face of religious extremism in the Maghreb.
Now that he has fallen, driven away by a popular uprising sparked by protests at unemployment and corruption that no government saw coming, uncomfortable questions will no doubt be raised.
The finger-pointing has started in Paris, by far the biggest backer of Mr Ben Ali’s dictatorship. Soon it could reach the European Union, a leading partner, which ignored the cause of human rights and democratisation enshrined in its trade agreement with Tunisia.
Tunisia was touted as a success story in part because it was the first to sign an association agreement with the EU. This was born out of the “Barcelona process” that was designed to enhance co-operation with the countries of the southern Mediterranean. Between the 1995 signing of the trade agreement and 2009, Tunis received €1.7bn in EU financial assistance and €2.8bn in loans from the European Investment Bank, which aimed to encourage “reform and modernisation”.
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