The EU Director-General (DG) for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Christian Danielsson and Minister of International Cooperation and Investment of Egypt, Sahar Nasr signed a Financing Agreement to work towards the improvement of the situation of women in Egypt.  This agreement launches the ‘Advancing Women’s Rights in Egypt’ Programme, with an EU grant of €10 million.

“Promoting gender equality and empowering women is at the heart of EU external assistance and our cooperation with Egypt particularly in the current ‘Year of the Egyptian Women’,” said Danielsson. “The programme on advancing women’s rights in Egypt specifically aims at protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls, in addition to strengthening their role in the society and their contribution to the country’s development,” he added.

The programme seeks to support the efforts of the Egyptian Government towards abandoning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). It also works on strengthening women’s access to justice and legal empowerment through the expansion of Legal Aid Offices in Family Courts and women support offices in Primary Courts.

The visit of DG Danielsson to Egypt takes place in the framework of the technical agreement between the EU and Egypt on the Partnership Priorities for the coming years. The current ongoing portfolio of EU support to Egypt amounts to €1.3 billion in grants. The ‘Advancing Women’s Rights’ programme comes in addition to recent previous EU commitments towards strengthening gender equality and empowering women in Egypt amounting to €21 million of already ongoing cooperation.

Read more

Press release

EU-Egypt relations

EU-Egypt Bilateral Cooperation

EU Neighbours – Egypt

EU Delegation to Egypt – website and Facebook page