Ahead of the “first ever” EU-Egypt summit between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Egypt’s President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi on 22 October, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office said:
“A truly strategic partnership entails holding each other to account. As such, President Abdelfattah al-Sisi must call on EU leaders to take tangible and effective measures to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, its unlawful occupation of the whole Occupied Palestinian Territory and its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.
“At the same time, EU leaders must call on the Egyptian President to undertake urgently needed, concrete and long overdue human rights reforms. While the Egyptian authorities have taken symbolic but welcome measures in the past month, including the release of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdelfattah, and President al-Sisi’s referral of the Code of Criminal Procedures bill to Parliament for a limited review, the rampant arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and harsh prison sentences of critics continue unabated.”
Background
Since the March 2024 announcement of the new EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership, the Egyptian authorities have continued their policies of systematic repression and continued intolerance for peaceful dissent, as well as violations of people in Egypt’s human rights.
As part of the EU-Egypt strategic partnership, the EU pledged a total of €7.4 billion in grants and loans to Egypt, including €5 billion in Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) concessional loans. The EU set progress in the form of “concrete and credible steps towards respecting effective democratic mechanisms, including a multi-party parliamentary system, and the rule of law, and guaranteeing respect for human rights” as preconditions for Egypt to receive the MFA, along with other economic conditions. Egypt already received €1 billion, while the remaining, €4 billion were approved by the EU Council and Parliament in June 2025 and are pending the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding and subsequent disbursement in three operations.
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