Freedom and Justice Party Receives European Union Envoy to Southern Mediterranean

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s Economic Committee received, on Wednesday evening, Bernardino Leon, the European Union envoy to the Southern Mediterranean, and an accompanying delegation, at FJP headquarters in Cairo.

The meeting discussed ways of cooperation between the EU and Egypt, and drafting partnership agreements between the two sides, where Leon expressed hope that the EU will remain Egypt’s first commercial partner.

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Gouda, an FJP Economic Committee official, said that the meeting was fruitful and ended with both parties agreeing on a set of points to promote Egyptian-European partnership, most notably the EU’s readiness to provide all types of financial, trade and technical support to Egypt, as has been agreed with Tunisia in October 2011 and with Jordan in February 2012. Further visits and meetings have been agreed for experts of both sides to discuss the detailed aspects and to identify Egyptian requirements. Then, a meeting should be held towards the end of September 2012 to lay new foundations for the Egyptian-European partnership.

The EU also pledged to offer grants and loans to Egypt, based on the requirements which will be determined by the experts, to help fill the shortfall in funding for Egypt’s general fiscal budget. For its part, the EU also offered to aid in technology transfer and training, as well as participation in agricultural, industrial and tourism projects, and to help open European markets for Egyptian products.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Mohamed Gouda and Nagi Hindi, members of the FJP Economic Committee.