Egypt and the EU works on building and implementing a positive agenda for shared prosperity and stability. By elevating relations to the level of Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership, the EU and Egypt are committed to intensify political dialogue on matters of regional importance and work on mutual commitment to promote rule of law, democracy and human rights. 

Regional and international challenges highlight the significance of enhancing the political dialogue between the two sides by holding a summit, once every two years, gathering the Presidents of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the European Commission, and the European Council, alternately between Cairo and Brussels, in addition to tan annual Association Council, which constitutes the cornerstone of our bilateral engagement in the framework of the Association Agreement and the existing activities of partnership schemes involving Egypt and EU Member States.

The EU supports Egypt's 2030 development agenda to secure long-term macro-economic stability and sustainable economic growth, based on jointly defined priorities and reform objectives. The EU supports the Egyptian economy by providing timely support to both short-term stabilisation needs and medium-term economic reform efforts, as Egypt is facing heightened balance of payments pressures stemming from the global economic environment, including a sharp increase in borrowing costs. 

After the EU and Egypt signed in June 2024 a Memorandum of Understanding for the disbursement of the first Macro-Financial Assistance, EUR 1 billion in concessional loans have been disbursed in December 2024.  The Macro-Financial Assistance is linked to a series of socio-economic policy reforms that seek to promote macroeconomic stability, improve the business environment, enhance Egypt's competitiveness, and support Egypt's green transition. This sends a strong signal to international investors of Egypt’s reform commitment and its willingness to substantially improve the business environment. 

Furthermore, for the first period of 3 years of the current Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) for the period 2021-2027, EUR 206 million have been allocated for EU bilateral cooperation with Egypt to work in the areas of green and sustainable development, human development, economic resilience and prosperity building, and social development.  For the period 2014-2020, bilateral cooperation in the form of grants amounted EUR 756 million. This came in addition to over EUR 650 million of grants that, since 2008, have leveraged approximately EUR 8 billion in concessional loans from European Financial Institutions combined with public and private sector financing.

The Association Agreement established a free-trade area (FTA) between the EU and Egypt by removing tariffs on industrial products and making agricultural products easier to trade. In 2010, the FTA was complemented by an agreement on the liberalisation of trade in agricultural and fisheries goods.

The EU is Egypt’s most important trade partner accounting for ca. 25% of the country’s total trade. Bilateral trade in goods has increased substantially since the FTA entered into force. In the last 10 years, it grew from EUR 23 billion in 2014 to EUR 32.5 billion in 2024. Egypt mostly exports fuels and mining products, chemicals, and agricultural products to the EU. Over the same period, agri-food exports from Egypt to the EU have been particularly successful increasing from EUR 650 million to EUR 2.3 billion with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables.  The EU is also the leading investor in Egypt, with an accumulated investment stock of ca. EUR 27.6 billion in 2022. Egypt remains one of the biggest recipient of EU Foreign Development Investment (FDI) in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The EU and Egypt are continuously working on improving trade and investment relations, in order to foster mutually beneficial development and growth. During the 2024 EU-Egypt Investment Conference, multiple private investment agreements were signed, as well as the Green Sustainable Industry programme and the Financing Agreement for the Interreg cooperation programme NEXT MED.

Guided by the principles of partnership, shared responsibility and burden sharing, Egypt and the EU have adopted a holistic approach to migration governance. The EU will continue to support Egypt on migration management under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). The existing programmes address the root causes of irregular migration, alternatives to irregular migration, border management, combating migrant smuggling and trafficking, ensuring dignified and sustainable return and reintegration (including reintegration of Egyptian nationals), protecting the rights of migrants and refugees (including support to Sudanese refugees), and labour migration and mobility. So far, EUR 181 million has been adopted for Egypt and EUR 200 million has been announced for the period 2024-2027.

Egypt benefits from bilateral and regional funding under the North of Africa window of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF Africa) supporting efforts in enhancing migration management, addressing the roots causes of irregular migration and sustaining local communities hosting refugees. Ongoing projects in Egypt totalling EUR 90 million include a package for Enhancing the Response to Migration Challenges in Egypt (ERMCE), and regional actions on security, labour mobility, asylum, support to children and refugees. Egypt also benefits from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) set up for the period 2021-2027. This fund aims to further boost national capacities and improve procedures for migration management, as well as to enhance solidarity and responsibility sharing between EU Member States, in particular through emergency assistance and the relocation mechanism.

In 2024, the EU allocated EUR 9 million in humanitarian aid to help the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, covering mainly education in emergencies and basic needs. The EU is responding to the influx of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan by funding life-saving assistance such as food, water, sanitation, and hygiene items for those newly arriving across the border to Egypt. In addition, the EU supports emergency cash assistance, child friendly spaces and psychosocial support for the children.

The EU and Egypt are committed to continue enhancing cooperation on security and defence. Since May 2023, they co-chair the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) with as strategic priorities Africa and gender in counterterrorism (CT). The first meeting of the established CT Dialogue was held in October 2023. 

In the field of broader security and law enforcement, partnerships have been formed between the EU Home Agencies (Europol, Eurojust and Cepol) fostering operational cooperation in the fields of transnational organised crime, particularly migrant smuggling, illicit trafficking and money laundering. Regarding defence, the EU in September 2024 adopted an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility (EPF) to the benefit of the Egyptian Armed Forces (EAF); while there is an ongoing productive exchange between EU-NAVFOR Operations ASPIDES and ATALANTA with the Egyptian Navy.

EU-Egypt relations have an important human component. EU support to Egypt’s social development therefore includes boosting the country's human resources, in particular youth, women and children. The EU supports Egypt’s efforts to foster economic and social protection particularly of persons exposed to potential negative impacts of economic reforms and the fallouts of external shocks. Moreover, the EU and Egypt continue to promote inclusive rural and urban socio-economic development, as well as to improve the delivery of basic services, also with a view to ensuring connection to labour market demands, enhancing digital skills and literacy of the population, technical and vocational training, and health care systems.

Under the EU twinning tool, the Egyptian public administration partnered with European administrations for mutual learning and capacity building through sharing of EU best practices, through twinning projects in the sectors of finance, internal market and economic criteria, standardisation and certification, trade and industry and transport. Egypt also benefited from Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument (TAIEX) that supported public administration reforms with 120 events in 2016-2023.

In addition bilateral cooperation, Egypt benefits from regional cooperation in sectors like environment, renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change, private sector development, including for SMEs and innovative start-ups, support to civil society, support for security cooperation in areas such as combatting organised crime and terrorism. The EU and Egypt have signed the third generation of one of the largest cooperation initiatives funded by the EU to enhance transnational cooperation in the Mediterranean area Interreg cooperation programme ‘NEXT MED’ which brings together 15 countries and 200 million people.

People-to-people contact is further facilitated through Egypt’s participation in the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), as well as in Erasmus+, which supports the modernisation of the higher education sector and promotes mobility and cooperation with EU higher education institutions. Under the Erasmus+ programme, 5,238 Egyptian students, professors and university staff travelled to Europe and 2,474 European counterparts travelled to Egypt between 2014 and 2023. Moreover, the EU and Egypt have finalized already Egypt's full participation to the Horizon Europe programme, which would allow Egyptian researchers to access world-class research facilities in Europe Horizon Europe is the largest EU's research and innovation programme ever with a budget of €95.5 billion for the period 2021-2027.