Debate: EU-Egypt strategic and comprehensive partnership and agreements with key third countries
Date: TUESDAY, 23 APRIL 2024
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

On 17 March on her visit to Egypt, President von der Leyen, accompanied by the Prime Ministers of Greece, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Austria, in an unprecedented joint visit of European leaders, signed a joint declaration launching this strategic and comprehensive partnership between the EU and Egypt.  What we are aiming for with this partnership is to recognise Egypt’s unique and vital geostrategic role as a pillar of security, moderation and peace in an increasingly unstable region of the Mediterranean, the Near East and Africa. Amid a rapidly deteriorating economic and fiscal situation over the last months, Egypt has been experiencing significant balance of payment pressure, with a very large exposure to the economic effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza and the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.  Our strategic partnership with Egypt identifies six areas of cooperation: political relations, macroeconomic stability, trade and investment, migration and mobility, security, and demography and human capital. Let me spare a few words for these chapters.  First, on economic stability, the European Union is ready to support Egypt’s 2030 development agenda to secure long-term macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth based on jointly-defined priorities and reform objectives. Financing will support and accompany progress along these jointly-defined common priorities and objectives, which we also think will be able to unlock significant private sector investment.  On investments more specifically, we are committed to enhance aspects of cooperation with Egypt in multiple fields of the modern economy. The new geopolitical and energy market reality requires deepening our existing partnership to support our energy security. The EU and Egypt agreed to step up the cooperation with a particular focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, as well as the cooperation on other safe and sustainable low carbon technologies.  Building on Egypt’s significant potential for cost-effective expansion of renewable power generation, we are attributing special importance to emblematic projects such as the electrical GREGY interconnector linking Egypt and Greece, as well as supporting the work of the East Med Gas Forum with a view to strengthening energy cooperation and security of gas supply in the region, and through the region with the EU. On migration and mobility, guided by the principles of partnership, shared responsibility and burden sharing, Egypt and the European Union adopt a holistic approach to governing migration. The Union will further provide the necessary financial support to assist Egypt on migration-related programmes, including on legal migration pathways and mobility schemes such as the Talent Partnerships. Our aim is to tackle the root causes of irregular migration, combating smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons, as well as strengthening border management. Equally, we find it is important to ensure dignified and humane return and integration. The EU and Egypt will continue to cooperate in order to support Egypt’s efforts in hosting refugees, and we are both committed to the protection of migrants and refugees. To underpin this overall level of partnership, the EU is proposing a significant EUR 7.4 billion of financial and investment support for Egypt until 2027. Out of this money, EUR 5 billion will be macro-financial assistance and EUR 2.5 billion will be from the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument funds. This is a game changer.  Honourable Members of the Parliament, the aim of the EU strategic and comprehensive partnership with Egypt is to elevate our relations with this important strategic partner – but doing it based on the values of equity, mutual respect and trust. This is equally important for us as it is for them. Especially in these dark, turbulent, unstable times, this partnership has a win-win potential.