Tunis denies being sanctioned by the African Union
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - In a statement released on Thursday, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry has denied media stories which said that the African Union (AU) has imposed a sanction on Tunisia for the non-payment of its contribution to the budget of the Pan-African organization.
While admitting that the arrears owed by the Tunisian State to the AU budget amounts to 18 million dinars (US$6.56 million), the ministry specifies that an amount of three million dinars (US$1,09 million) has already been transferredto the AU, noting that urgent additional funds have been requested from the relevant departments to pay the outstanding balance before the deadlines set at the end of the current year.
"Tunisia has been and remains one of the few countries which have never been slow to pay their contributions to international and regional organizations despite the difficult economic conditions it is going through in these exceptional circumstances," the statement said, assuring that the rest of the contribution will be paid on time.
The statement denied that Tunisia was banned from speaking for six months during meetings of the continental organization of which it is a founding member, noting that any preventive measure applied by the financial and administrative services of the AU to Member States is “a routine accounting procedure which does not affect participation in the organization”.
It noted that many countries have not been able to meet their financial obligations due to the rescheduling of priorities of majority of the countries of the world affected by the negative repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic on their economies.
This update follows Wednesday's intervention by Foreign Minister, Othman Jerandi, before the Parliament's Committee on Rights, Freedoms and External Relations, on the occasion of the discussion of the ministry's draft budget for 2021 during which he addressed the issue of arrears owed by Tunisia to the AU budget.
-0- PANA BB/TBM/KND/VAO 19Nov2020
