Egypt: Migration at the heart of the Meeting Mitsotakis – Al Sisi

With the Greek Prime Minister’s te-a-tet with him the talks of European leaders with the Egyptian president in Cairo begin. The main topic to be discussed at the meeting of the two leaders is migration, and the last 24 hours are recorded increased flows in Gavdos and southern Crete, which causes intense concern at Maximos Palace. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leien, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nemacher and Italian and Belgian Prime Ministers Georgia Meloni and Alexander De Croo are in Cairo for talks with President Al Sisi, to seal the financing agreement of a package that will exceed 7.4 billion euros, as support for Egypt for the top issue of immigration. According to Reuters, citing a senior EU official, the Union will provide Egypt with funding of 7.4 billion euros from 2024 to 2027 under an agreement on extended cooperation to be announced in Cairo today. The money will include 5 billion euros of macro-financial assistance, 1.8 billion euros for investments and 600m euros in grants, the official said. The 600 million relate to projects mainly in the field of migration and technical assistance (e.g. border reinforcement, reception centres, border guards training) From the macro-financial assistance, 1 billion euros of emergency funding will be provided in 2024, the official said.