In March, Egypt and the EU signed a strategic partnership agreement to solidify their relationship.

Per the agreement, the EU pledged a 7.4-billion-euro financing package to support development efforts in the country.

In June, Minister of Planning Rania Al-Mashat signed the first phase of the Macro-Economic Support Mechanism and Budget Support (MFA) with Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice-president of the European Commission.

At the time, Minister Al-Mashat highlighted that the Macro-Economic Support Mechanism and Budget Support are integral to Egypt’s more comprehensive trade, investment, and economics partnership with the EU.

“Over the past six months, the government, in coordination with key entities, including the Central Bank, Ministries of Finance, Social Solidarity, Labor, Investment, and Foreign Trade, as well as the Competition Protection and Anti-Monopoly Authority and the Information Decision Support Centre of the Cabinet, has implemented several reforms under the three pillars of the structural reform programme,” Al-Mashat stated.

These reforms include the electronic calculation of payroll taxes, the activation of the Unified Public Finance Law to set annual government debt limits promoting sustainable transformation through the expansion of social protection networks and a Cabinet decision requiring government entities to submit a list of tax exemptions granted to state-owned companies for review.