Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir has received Antonio López-Istúriz, the Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
During the meeting, the two parties discussed mechanisms of developing joint relations at the bilateral and multilateral levels between Egypt and the EU. The meeting was attended by Tarek Radwan, the head of the human rights committee at Egypt’s parliament.
The minister said that the government of Egypt is keen to expand joint economic cooperation with the EU, as it is one of the most important trading partners of Egypt on the regional and global levels.
Samir pointed out that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the European Union amounted to approximately $29.6bn last year, compared to $23.8bn in 2020, with an increase of 24.5%.
He noted that the European Union is the second largest receiving market for Egyptian exports globally, highlighting Egypt’s keenness to transfer advanced European industrial technologies to the Egyptian industry. Besides, attracting more European investments to the Egyptian market and benefiting from the large Egyptian market and the network of preferential free trade agreements signed with a large number of countries and major economic blocs in the world, especially from the markets of the African continent, within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
For his part, Antonio López-Istúriz stated that the European Parliament is keen to expand joint cooperation with the government of and parliament of Egypt in several issues and files of common interest, within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy.
He said that Egypt is one of the main suppliers of natural gas for European countries, as part of their efforts to diversify gas sources during the current period.
He further noted that the European continent appreciates the pivotal role of the Egyptian state at various levels, as it is one of the main countries in the Middle East and southern Mediterranean region.
López-Istúriz highlighted the European Parliament’s keenness to activate the role of parliamentary diplomacy in opening direct channels of communication with Egypt to promote dialogue on all issues and files of common interest.
