Egypt, European Commission discuss bilateral coop., COP27 & innovative financing to support development

CAIRO - 12 April 2022: The Minister of International Cooperation  Rania A. Al-Mashat met with the Executive Vice President of the European Green Deal at the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and his delegation, which includes senior European Union officials, alongside the European Union Ambassador to Egypt, Christian Berger.

 

During the meeting, they discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation between Egypt and the European Union, joint cooperation within the framework of Egypt’s presidency of the COP27, and enhancing innovative financing to support accelerating sustainable development in Egypt.

 

Al-Mashat shared Egypt’s role in supporting climate change, and efforts in mitigation and adaptation, including clean and renewable energy and green hydrogen; in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030, the National Climate Change Strategy 2050, Egypt’s role in Africa, and in light of the development financing allocated by the European Union to the African Continent to implement a strategy for green hydrogen.

 

The Minister added that increasing development financing directed to adaptation and mitigation efforts in climate change is necessary to enhance the level of efforts being exerted globally. She explained that blended financing solutions are much-needed to incorporate the private sector’s engagement in the green transformation, noting the role played by multilateral banks and institutions in promoting innovative financing and partnerships with the private sector.

 

In this context, the European Union suggested the possibility of inviting private sector companies in the EU to participate in the COP27 activities, which would contribute to the promotion of investment in Egypt. This is given the presence of many European companies that have successful investments in Egypt, such as the German company Siemens, among many others.

 

The European Union also indicated the possibility of providing development financing of about €100 million for the “Food Facility Programme”, addressing food security.

With regard to budget support programmes; the European Union indicated that the second and final tranche of €9 million from the health sector policy support program is underway. The second, third and final tranches of the budget support, water, and energy programs will be disbursed in one package with a total value of up to €134 million in May.

 

The meeting also touched on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank and a number of representatives from the Government of Egypt and their counterparts from Greece, and the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), to strengthen bilateral relations, especially in the energy sector through electrical and gas interconnection projects, as well as cooperation on climate change and the green transformation through green projects, in light of Egypt’s COP27 presidency.    

 

Concluding the meeting, they agreed on the need to diversify the sources of development financing by finding innovative mechanisms that meet the needs of the global agenda.

 

Egypt has a strong partnership with the European Union, as the current cooperation portfolio amounts to about €1.35 billion in grants to support several sectors, including transport, small and medium enterprises, energy, environment, social protection, governance, capacity building and civil society; alongside  benefiting from many European initiatives and regional cooperation programmes.