Egyptian-European partnership agreement, concluded soon

The Egyptian-European partnership agreement is expected to be signed on the fringe of the meeting of the EU foreign ministers' General Council that will be held in Luxemburg in June 25-26, 2001.

Egyptian ambassador to Belgium and the European Commission and Luxemburg, Mr. Raouf Saad, stressed that the European commission is making the arrangements for the signing ceremony.

Europe is interested in this event since signing this agreement is considered a main pillar for the Barcelona Process, he added.

Singing this agreement will get Egypt into a new strategic relation with the EU. This partnership will realize two Egyptian objectives: First, integration into world economy. Second: the Egyptian economy will become a competitive one at the world level.

For Egypt, signing this partnership agreement with the EU is concomitant with signing the free trade area agreement with four Arab States that have partnership agreements with the EU. This is a step on the road of establishing the Euro-Mediterranean trade area.