Sisi approves €257 EU accord signed in March summit

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved Thursday the European Union’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Joint Declarations to support social and economic development in the North African country.

On the side-lines of Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm El Sheikh last March, the European Union and the Egyptian government signed MoU and Joint Declarations to support social and economic development in Egypt.

The Memorandum of Understanding concerns the EU Single Support Framework (SSF) for Egypt for 2014-2015 which reflects the sectors of bilateral cooperation mutually agreed upon by Egypt and the EU for that period. The SSF focuses on a limited number of priorities taking into consideration Egypt’s reform agenda, the need to ensure ownership and reinforce development partners’ coordination, and allocates for the two years in question an indicative total amount of €210-257 million in EU grants to Egypt.

The priority areas for EU-Egyptian cooperation during 2014-2015 established by the MoU are; Poverty Alleviation, Local socio-economic development and Social Protection (40% of total), Governance, Transparency and Business Environment (20%) and Quality of life and environment: (40%).