EU/Egypt: First summit should not ignore human rights violations

Share Facebook Twitter Email WhatsApp (Brussels, 21 Oct. 2025) – As the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa hold the “first ever” EU-Egypt summit with Egypt’s President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi on 22 October, the undersigned organizations urge the leaders to recognise the central role of human rights to the summit’s objectives of “shared stability and prosperity”. Since the March 2024 announcement of the new EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership, the Egyptian authorities’ policies of systematic repression and continued intolerance for peaceful dissent, as well as violations of Egyptians’ economic and social rights have continued without serious course correction. “EU leaders should not ignore the many human rights abuses Egyptian people have been suffering under Sisi’s rule”, said Claudio Francavilla, EU Associate Director at Human Rights Watch. “Europe should use its leverage to secure concrete, overdue reforms to ensure the Egyptian government is accountable to its people and committed to respect and fulfill their rights.” Egyptian authorities have recently taken limited, symbolic measures in the past month. These include the release of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdelfattah after six years of unjust imprisonment for his peaceful activism, and President al-Sisi’s referral of the Code of Criminal Procedures bill to Parliament for a limited review, which in turn largely failed to introduce amendments that would bring the bill in line with international law. While such gestures are welcome, the authorities have continued to subject critics to arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and harsh prison sentences. They recently referred around 6,000 people to trial in connection with terrorism-related offences in 2025, many solely for exercising their human rights. Enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial executions by security forces continue unabated in near-complete impunity; further concerns have arisen over reports of mass graves in a militarized zone in North Sinai, with no official investigation to date. Egypt’s transnational repression tactics have escalated to weaponization of Egyptian diplomatic missions against peaceful protesters, including in some EU member states. Egyptian security forces, funded by the EU, have arbitrarily detained and refouled refugees and asylum seekers solely for their immigration status. While the Egyptian government received pledges of financing for well over $50 billion from international donors, creditors and investors in 2024-2025, most of which has already been disbursed, the government has still refused to prioritize meeting its constitutional obligations for spending on essential public services such as health and education. As the rising cost of living continues to weigh heavily on tens of millions who live in or near poverty, the government’s austerity measures continue, and inadequate social security leaves millions of people in poverty unsupported. “While Egypt’s critical challenges are many, the knowledge and skills of the Egyptian people are even more numerous. If Egyptian leaders halt their repression and respect the human rights of Egypt’s population to freely and critically discuss their nation’s needs, they are fully capable of identifying and advancing the solutions Egypt needs to build a more promising future that reverses decades of crises, poverty, and emigration,” said Timothy Kaldas, Deputy Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. The co-signing organizations urge the EU leaders to use the opportunity of the Strategic Partnership with Egypt to push for the structural reforms necessary to protect, respect and fulfil the economic, social, civil and political rights of people in Egypt, including by tackling widespread human rights violations, corruption and lack of transparency, and lack of domestic scrutiny over the government’s policies, which hinder meaningful economic reform and accountability. “Egypt cannot afford to wait another two years until the next summit to engage reforms in hopes of averting both another cycle of economic and financial crisis, and the persistent risk of upheaval in response to brutal, widespread repression and hardship. Egypt’s allies need to urge President Al-Sisi to give people space to debate State policies: open the public sphere by lifting restrictions on the media, civil society, free speech and political parties, end arbitrary arrests and fast-track a mass release of political prisoners based on human rights criteria,” said Samar Elhusseiny, Director of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum. Background After signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the EU for a €1 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) operation on 29 June 2024, the Egyptian authorities failed to take “concrete and credible steps towards respecting effective democratic mechanisms, including a multi-party parliamentary system, and the rule of law, and guaranteeing respect for human rights”, which the EU set as preconditions for the MFA. Yet Egypt still received those funds by the end of 2024. The second, €4 billion MFA operation was approved by the EU Council and Parliament in June 2025, followed by negotiations over the related MoU; as of October 2025, it is reportedly finalized. SIGNATORIES ANKH Association Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF) Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) EgyptWide for Human Rights EuroMed Rights Human Rights Watch Law and Democracy Support Foundation (LDSF) Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE) The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) EU