EU reiterates support for Egypt

The European Union said on Monday it is firmly committed to continue supporting Egypt in addressing current challenges, based on new partnership priorities.

This is the conclusion from the joint report released Monday by the EU foreign service, called European External Action Service, and the European Commission on the partnership between the EU and Egypt for the period from January 2015 to May 2017.

The report comes ahead of the 7th EU-Egypt Association Council meeting, scheduled to take place on July 25 in Brussels.

Over the past two years, the EU focus has been on supporting Egypt’s economic, social and political development to improve the future prospects of its people and contribute to stabilisation and long-term prosperity of the country but also the region, said the report. Both parties have reconfirmed the importance of their relations and cooperation, by jointly agreeing on new Partnership Priorities that will further lead their work for the coming three years.

The report noted that in 2015 and 2016, €250 million euro ($286 million) of new bilateral EU funding was committed to Egypt. However, the combined volume of ongoing financial assistance of the EU, its Member States and European Financial institutions to Egypt is over €11 billion ($12.6 billion).