EU officials seek fast track for Egypt's Association agreement

European officials are hoping for a speedy ratification process for the Egypt-European Union (EU) Association agreement signed on Tuesday in Luxembourg.

"The agreement will push forward the Barcelona Process to enhance bilateral cooperation on all levels," Anthony Smallwood, head of the Mashreq and Israel Unit at the EU Foreign Relations Directorate General, told reporters in Brussels yesterday.

"The EU's relation with Egypt is not a donor-recipient one, but an equal partnership regulated by a joint cooperation agreement signed by both parties in 1977," Smallwood said.

Egypt is the fifth South Mediterranean country to sign an association agreement, after Tunisia, Israel, Jordan and Morocco. The agreement commits both sides to further liberalise the trade of goods, services and financing to create an Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Zone by 2010.

Smallwood is optimistic but cautious. "The association agreement alone will not be enough to enhance trade ties if there is no real will to carry out this mission," he said.

"The new agreement will provide an effective framework for regular political dialogue. It will cement cooperation to promote economic and social development, and create the basis for the progressive liberalisation of trade," Smallwood noted.

He added that the agreement will also encourage regional cooperation and consolidate peaceful co-existence as well as economic and political stability.

The agreement does not contradict the Egyptian Industrial Modernisation Programme (IMP), Smallwood insisted, as both require a business-oriented environment to create globally competitive products.

"The MEDA programme, designed to help the EU's Mediterranean partners, will be adjusted according to priority of the partnership and the country's needs," he said.

Egypt's parliament will review the EU Association agreement before passing it to President Hosni Mubarak for final ratification.