President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was scheduled to join President of the European Council Antonio Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen for the first Egypt-EU Summit in Brussels on Wednesday, as Al-Ahram Weekly went to press.
According to statements from the Egyptian and European sides, the summit will focus on the future of bilateral relations that have been managed since 2004 under the Egypt-EU Partnership Agreement.
In March 2024, the two sides agreed to upgrade the level of their relationship to a Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership.
The summit, the statements noted, will examine ways of deepening economic and political relations between Egypt and the EU. They added that the summit will also examine a wide range of issues of interest to both sides, including the situation in the Middle East and developments around the Mediterranean.
Sources said that the summit will also see the finalisation of the signing of an over four billion euros loan package to Egypt, which is designed to help the country with its economic stabilisation and reform agenda.
Marking 20 years of partnership between Cairo and the EU in March 2024, Al-Sisi and Von der Leyen oversaw the signing of the Egypt-EU Partnership Agreement and a 200 million euro grant for migration policy and investment.
A Cairo-based European diplomat said that towards the end of 2024, Egypt received around one billion euros from the EU in the form of a short-term loan. “The idea is to help Egypt, which is a key and important partner, to overcome any serious economic hiccups, given that working towards economic stability is part of the upgraded profile of relations,” she said.
“Cooperation on managing [undocumented] migration from Africa, especially East and North Africa, to Southern Europe is always a key agenda issue in the meetings of Egyptian and European officials at all levels,” said an Egyptian diplomatic source.
He added that matters of human rights, “in line with the Egyptian parameters in this respect are also reviewed on a regular basis in the talks [between Egypt and] the European Union, simply because it is there in the original partnership agreement.”
He argued that what is most likely to top the agenda of the first Egypt-EU Summit is “the situation in the Middle East.” The summit, he noted, was taking place less than two weeks after Egypt hosted the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit to end the two-year Israeli war on Gaza.
“Today, the world is keeping a close watch on the development of the implementation of the first phase of the peace plan that was adopted in Sharm El-Sheikh [on 13 October], especially with the hiccups on the ground, including Israel’s repeated procrastination in allowing a steady flow of humanitarian aid to get into Gaza,” he said.
He added that the European Union will be “a key partner” for the future of Gaza in many ways, including planned cooperation with Egypt and a Palestinian Authority representative body to manage the Rafah Crossing that connects Egypt with Gaza.
“There are other details with regards to Gaza that merit top-level consultation, and the Brussels Summit will allow a space for this high-level engagement, especially with the participation of President Al-Sisi himself,” he added.
“The EU deeply values Egypt’s stabilising role in the Middle East region and its mediation role in the Gaza conflict. Our first bilateral summit will be an excellent opportunity to further deepen our partnership, cooperate in addressing our common challenges and unleash the full potential of our relationship,” Costa said ahead of the Egypt-EU Summit.
In an interview with the Weekly, Julietta Francisca Eichhorst, head of the European Union Delegation in Egypt, said that the EU-Egypt partnership has evolved into strategic and multidimensional cooperation covering investment, trade, renewable energy, and digital transformation.
She said that the EU stands ready to support Egypt’s reform agenda through expanded development financing, technical assistance, and private-sector engagement.
She noted that social inclusion and gender equality remain central to the EU’s cooperation with Egypt. “Economic progress is sustainable only if it benefits all segments of society,” she said. “We are proud to work with Egypt on empowering women entrepreneurs, supporting youth start-ups, and promoting education and digital skills.”
The first Egypt-EU Summit comes in the wake of the declaration of the updated Pact for the Mediterranean, another umbrella for cooperation between Egypt and several EU member states.
The released text of the new pact identifies three pillars for future cooperation around the Mediterranean: people as a driving force for change; stronger and more integrated economies; and security preparedness and migration management.
The pact was drafted after consultations among the states north and south of the Mediterranean and should be endorsed by these states in November to mark 30 years of the Barcelona Process, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership created in 1995. Once endorsed, the new pact will be transformed into a plan of action.
According to Rabha Seif Allam, a senior expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo and a member of the steering committee of Euromesco, a consultant think tank for the European Commission, Egypt is firmly engaged to upgrade relations through the partnership with the EU and Mediterranean cooperation forums.
These forums, she explained, are ultimately designed to serve the same purpose: to make the wider geographical neighbourhood of the European Union “safe and prosperous”.
Economic cooperation, Allam said, is essential to reaching this objective, given the history of the EU as an organisation set up after World War II to foster economic cooperation among the countries of Western Europe and then in Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War.
She added that the economic cooperation track had acquired more significance, especially in the post-Arab Spring phase and with the decline of prospects for Middle Eastern peace. This is when European states, especially those overlooking the Mediterranean, became concerned about undocumented migration, particularly in cases where migrants lack professional or vocational skills.
“This is why in the updated version of cooperation on the management of [undocumented] emigration, the EU is keen to establish vocational training centres in the countries of the Southern Mediterranean to set all potential emigrants up for work and integration in their future European societies,” Allam said.
She argued that Egypt is well-placed for cooperation with the EU, not just in providing vocational training for potential emigrants but also and more significantly in acquiring advanced vocational training programmes. “Egypt is interested in the whole range of education, including vocational training and industrial cooperation,” she said.
She added that the timing of the first Egypt-EU Summit “is really important given how keen Egypt is to further include the European perspective in the Middle East struggle, especially in the situation in Gaza, in order to balance the pro-Israeli US position.”
According to Egyptian Presidential Spokesperson Mohamed Al-Shennawi, political and economic cooperation with the EU will be on Al-Sisi’s agenda in the bilateral meetings he will have with European leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
The Egyptian delegation, he added, will also be holding meetings on the sidelines of the summit to discuss potential European investments in Egypt, where the EU is a leading investor with investments that currently exceed 27 billion euros.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 23 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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