EU, Tunisia to promote management of migratory flows

Tunisia and the European Union (EU) on Monday formally established a mobility partnership aiming to facilitate the movement of people between the two sides and to promote a common and responsible management of existing migratory flows. "The EU will support the Tunisian authorities in their efforts in the field of asylum, with a view to establishing a system for protecting refugees and asylum-seekers," said EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom. "Through this Partnership, the EU and Tunisia will not only develop their bilateral relations in the fields of migration, mobility and security, but also cooperate to better meet the challenges faced in the Mediterranean," she added. The EU and Tunisia will begin negotiations on an agreement to facilitate procedures for issuing visas. The partnership also aims to improve the information available to qualified Tunisian citizens on employment, education and training opportunities available in the EU. Mutual recognition of professional and university qualifications shall also be implemented. EU's mobility partnership with Tunisia follows a similar agreement with Morocco in June 2013. Negotiations are also ongoing with Jordan. A total of 125,594 requests for Schengen visas were submitted to consulates of Schengen countries in Tunisia in 2012, an increase of 14 percent over figures for 2010. Ukraine pledges uninterrupted Russian gas supplies to Europe Ukraine was ready to ensure uninterrupted supplies of Russian gas to Europe despite the ongoing political tensions, Energy and Coal Minister Yuriy Prodan said on Monday. "The situation in Crimea will not affect the gas transit," he told a media briefing. The minister said his country was planning to partially pay off the debt for gas supplies to Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom in the near future. Kiev owes Moscow 1.5 billion U.S. dollars for gas deliveries, of which 400 million dollars for February supplies, he said. In 2013, Ukraine delivered 86.1 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to consumers in Europe, up 3.2 percent year on year. The political dispute between Kiev and Moscow over the escalating crisis in the Russian-speaking Autonomous Republic of Crimea in southern Ukraine triggered the fears that Ukraine may halt Russian gas supplies to Europe.