With Egypt facing an increasingly complex economic, social, political and security environment, the EU is firmly committed to continue supporting the country in addressing current challenges, based on new partnership priorities. This is the main conclusion to emerge from the report released by the EU on 17 July on the partnership between the EU and Egypt for the period January 2015 to May 2017.

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

The EU, together with EU Member States, has been actively supporting Egypt in a wide range of critical areas including socio-economic development, education, health, energy, transport, environment, climate action, information society, research and innovation.

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. Those set the basis for further strengthening EU-Egypt cooperation in areas of common interest and concern, notably economic reforms, governance, human rights, rule of law and efforts towards a more open society but also migration and security/counterterrorism, as well as closer dialogue and cooperation on regional issues.

At the end of the reporting period, total ongoing EU financial assistance commitments to Egypt amounted to over €1.3 billion in grants, with around 45% targeting economic and social development including employment creation; 45% devoted to renewable energy, water and sanitation/waste management and environment, and, 10% dedicated to improving governance, human rights, justice and public administration.

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Press release

Full report

EU Delegation to Egypt