The European Union (EU) is the first investor in Egypt, with its companies holding 32% of all the foreign direct investment stock of the country, Commissioner of European Commission Olivér Várhelyi has stated. He also said that the EU is the first trading partner of Egypt, accounting for 27% of all the trade Egypt does.
Várhelyi made these remarks during the joint press conference following the EU-Egypt Association Council on Tuesday. He said: “We discussed the success of our Economic and Investment Plan, which aims to mobilize €9bn in investments, mainly for growth and jobs in Egypt in the most critical areas, such as food, water, and energy for any sustainable economy. We were very proud to see that out of the €9bn that we have allocated, we have already mobilized €5.8bn in investments in Egypt. I think this is a very good result, considering the time elapsed. We started our work back in 2021, and here we are already at the beginning of 2024. It should encourage us to work even harder to complete all the investments under the Economic and Investment Plan.”
Várhelyi added: “We are entering into a golden age of EU-Egypt relations. I think that Egypt has proven itself to be our longstanding and reliable partner. A reliable and predictable partner in the region, a region that faces many challenges and also offers many opportunities; opportunities that we have discussed, opportunities that we agreed to seize and exploit and enjoy to the fullest. Therefore, we think that we all agree that the role of Egypt in the region is not only paramount but also critical. We are convinced that the prosperity, stability, and security of Egypt is the prime interest of Europe and this is why I’m very pleased to see that we are contributing not only to this but also to building together something even more solid. Through our cooperation in the last few years, we have laid the foundations of the new phase of our partnership, the deep and comprehensive partnership that we hope to sign very soon with Egypt.”
“We also discussed energy and the trilateral EU-Egypt-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that has delivered significant amounts of LNG to Europe. This has helped Europe to diversify away from Russian gas and to find new reliable partners in terms of gas supply. I think this is another success that we have only started working on, and this is already bringing direct benefits to European citizens,” he noted.
The two sides have also discussed the future of cooperation in the energy field, which may be the biggest potential for both the EU and Egypt because Egypt can become not only a reliable supplier of gas but also a reliable source of renewable energy. For that reason, the EU highlighted on its side the importance of the decision to give the status of a project of mutual interest to the GREGY project, the deep-sea electricity cable between Greece and Egypt. This status should create a business opportunity and more attractive financing options for this project, he disclosed.
