On 23 March 2024, the European Commission officially released €1 billion as part of the new agreement signed with Egypt. This first loan for the Egyptian Bonapartist regime was made without consulting the European Parliament.
On 22 March 2024, during an official visit to Cyprus, the European Commissioner for Migration and the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, said that the EU could soon conclude a migration agreement with Lebanon.
On 19 March 2024, Reuters reported European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly’s comments on the new agreement signed by the EU with Egypt. She believes that the cooperation agreement should not be so “opaque” with regard to the issue of human rights.
On 17 March 2024, an EU delegation headed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed a financial and migration agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Cairo will receive €7.4 billion in loans, investments and grants over the next four years. This “strategic partnership” means, among other things, that Egypt will become a gendarme on behalf of Europe in terms of migration management. EuroMed Rights and other civil society organisations have strongly criticised the agreement as an acquiescence in the authoritarian regime’s ongoing human rights violations.
On 13 March 2024, the Artificial Intelligence Act was adopted by the European Parliament. EuroMed Rights highlights the ultra-security approach to which this new law has confined the migration issue. The #ProtectNotSurveil coalition denounces the use of these new technologies to further violate the rights of migrants.
