North Africa
EU wants to invest billions in relations with Egypt
Handshake in Cairo: EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seal a new “comprehensive and strategic partnership”. photo
© Dirk Waem/Belga/dpa
The EU and Egypt want to greatly expand their cooperation. It’s about economic and political stability in North Africa, but also about the fight against unwanted migration.
In view of the increasing number of refugees, the EU wants to significantly expand its cooperation with Egypt and provide the economically struggling country with financial aid worth around 7.4 billion euros. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the agreement in Cairo Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a declaration for a “comprehensive and strategic partnership”. It should be about expanding cooperation to curb unwanted migration, but also about economic and political cooperation.
After signing the declaration, Von der Leyen spoke of a “historic milestone” in relations between the EU and Egypt. She also noted the importance of Egypt in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “We are all extremely concerned about the war in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian situation,” said Deutsche.
According to the information, 5 billion euros of the planned EU financial aid are earmarked for loans and 1.8 billion euros for investments in areas such as food security and digitalization. 600 million euros should therefore flow as grants, 200 million of which will go to migration management.
Concerns about increasing numbers of refugees
The background to the support plans is primarily that Egypt itself has taken in millions of migrants from crisis countries and is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis. Many people are struggling with an inflation rate of 35 percent and high unemployment. More and more Egyptians are falling into poverty.
Concern in the EU about increasing numbers of refugees also plays a role. Greece in particular has recently registered increasing arrivals of migrants of Egyptian origin via a new refugee route from Tobruk in Libya towards Crete. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has already counted more than 1,000 people who arrived on the islands of Gavdos or Crete from Tobruk this year. Most of them are said to come from Egypt.
Chancellor welcomes understanding
When asked by the German Press Agency, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that strategic partnerships with third countries are an important building block in the fight against irregular migration. “That’s why the EU’s agreement with Egypt on this issue is good news.”
Von der Leyen explained at a press event after signing the declaration that it was also about facilitating legal migration and so-called talent partnerships. The latter is intended to be used to specifically search for skilled workers and to promote and train talent who can then be employed as skilled workers in the EU.
Von der Leyen was accompanied on her visit by six European heads of state and government. Among them were Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Human rights activists are worried
There is criticism of the planned closer cooperation with Egypt because of the human rights situation in Egypt. Freedom of expression and assembly in the North African country with around 105 million inhabitants is severely restricted, and demonstrations are effectively banned. According to human rights activists, critics are being persecuted using drastic methods and have to fear arbitrary arrests and worse. Tens of thousands have been imprisoned for political reasons, according to human rights activists. The former general Al-Sisi rules the country with a hard hand. He came to power in a military coup in 2013.
Al-Sisi pointed out that under his leadership he had succeeded in stopping the influx of illegal migration from Egyptian shores. His country has accepted nine million refugees and migrants from abroad.
The role of the EU rivals China and Russia
Support for the new plans with Egypt came from the European Parliament. The need to curb the uncontrolled migration flows to Europe and to deepen economic cooperation with the countries of North Africa has been emphasized for years, commented the chairman of the Christian Democratic EPP group, Manfred Weber (CSU). The EPP welcomes the steps taken by von der Leyen and the other heads of government.
Meanwhile, EU diplomats emphasize that migration is just one of many aspects of cooperation. Accordingly, it is particularly important to prevent Russia and China from gaining even greater influence in Egypt. For example, Russia is currently building nuclear reactors in the North African country and Beijing is also trying to strengthen its influence with billions in investments.