European Union rewards Egyptian Military Dictatorship for “Stability”

In light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and migration from war, economic instability and political strife across the region, the European Union (EU) sees the Egyptian military dictatorship as a useful partner in crime.

Over thirteen years have passed since Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el Sisi couped his way to power. In this time frame, the EU has again and again proven that its lip service to human rights and democracy are little more than a facade.

Last month the EU gave 1.74 billion dollars to Egypt under the EU’s Macro-Financial Assistance programme. This is the second of three installments that are to be paid to Egypt.

The aid is part of a deal struck in March 2024, where the European Union’s Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Egyptian military dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed an 8 billion dollar “financial and investment aid package.” The signed “Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership” which spans from 2024 to 2027 covers six pillars: political relations, economic stability, trade and investments, migration and mobility, security and demography and human capital.”

Now in July 2026, the Delegation of the EU writes that: “The disbursement follows the European Commission’s positive assessment that Egypt has successfully met the conditions required for the release of the second tranche. These include the implementation of agreed economic policy reforms, continued progress under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, and the fulfilment of the political requirements set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the European Union and Egypt.”

While the EU Ambassador to Egypt states: “The Macro-Financial Assistance programme forms a central pillar of the EU–Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership, reflecting the European Union’s recognition of Egypt as a strategic partner and an essential pillar of stability in the Mediterranean and the wider Middle East and North Africa region.”

The stability, economic reforms and strategic partnership that EU officials here praise, have meant extreme poverty, economic insecurity and political subjugation for the majority of Egyptians in practice.

Hindering Migration and the Gaza Genocide

Back in March 2024, Egypt had also struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout loan of 8 billion dollars: “The deal with the IMF was combined with economic reforms that included the flotation of the Egyptian pound and a sharp raising of the main interest rate.”

The EU-Egypt aid package which was signed in the same month, consists of grants and loans over the next three years and is formally set to expand Egypt-EU cooperation. A joint statement in March 2024 read: “The European Union recognizes Egypt as a reliable partner and its unique and vital geostrategic role as a pillar of security, moderation and peace in the Mediterranean, Near East and African region.”

The European Commission had declared that the deal aims to promote “democracy, fundamental freedoms, human rights, and gender equality.” What the deal is about becomes clear in the fine print: keeping refugees out of the EU.

The EU has signed similar deals to “restrict migration” with Tunisia and Mauritania. The support of the Libyan coast guard and its human rights violations or the EU-Turkey deal of 2016, where the EU paid Erdogan 6 billion Euros to keep Syrian refugees out of the EU. Nine million migrants, mainly from other African nations, are living in Egypt, 480.000 of whom are registered refugees and asylum-seekers with the U.N. refugee agency. Because of the serious economic and human rights situation in Egypt, more and more Egyptians are also looking for a way out of the country. Most Egyptians fleeing to Europe reach Italy via the Mediterranean Sea.

Such figures have led the EU to do deals with Egypt in the years before, such as the 80 million Euros given to the Egyptian coast guard by the EU to catch refugees fleeing to Europe, signed in 2022. Or the 23 million euros from the EU’s “Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument” (NDICI) to Egypt in 2023, which the EU stated was to be used to improve the “border management” of Egyptian authorities. The EU stated that this program exists to contribute to “the eradication of poverty and the promotion of sustainable development, prosperity, peace and stability.”

“Border management” and “promotion of stability” are euphemisms for hindering migrants from coming to the EU at all costs, even by letting them die. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEXT) who writes the same phrases on its website is notoriously known for actively having allowed thousands of migrants to drown throughout the last years.

While the EU currently supports the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the EU simultaneously fears a destabilization of the region that could lead to Palestinians fleeing to Europe. Israel continues to bomb Gaza, which has slaughtered over 100,000 Palestinian men, women, and children.

The hypocrisy of the EU should come as no surprise. In its imperialist logics, the EU does not come to the only viable solution to stop the ongoing causes of destabilization: end of all economic, political, and military support to the settler colony of Israel.

Instead, the EU, as it has done before, fortifies its borders to hinder those same refugees fleeing from the bombs that the EU member states themselves have delivered to Israel while simultaneously supporting the brutal military dictatorship of Abdel Fattah el Sisi.
One of the main EU member states, Germany, has itself increased its arms exports to Israel tenfold in 2023 and continues to deliver and import weapons (systems) to and from Israel. Hence, the weapons being deployed in the genocide in Gaza come directly from EU member states.

The German state has reiterated once and again that it stands unconditionally on the side of Israel and that Israel has a right to self-defense. The “collateral damage” of over 100,000 Palestinians being slaughtered in the genocide of Gaza seems to be the “price” states like Germany are willing to pay for their imperialist interests in the region.

The EU’s economic and political interests are the very foundation of the collaboration with dictatorships like Egypt. The talk of “human rights” is mere lip service, serving as a liberal facade for the brutal policies of “refugee containment” and condoning genocide.