The Egyptian-European Business Council praised Sunday the Joint Political Declaration document between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to raise relations between Egypt and the European Union to the level of a strategic partnership, in a way that raises the partnership between the two sides to its full potential to achieve common political, economic, and security interests, in the presence of the prime ministers of Belgium, Italy, Greece, Austria, and Cyprus. The Council also welcomed - according to a statement - the financial package included in the announcement, which amounts to EUR 7.4 billion, and includes concessional financing and guarantees to encourage more European investments in Egypt and technical support for a number of cooperation projects. The Council affirms the great importance that Egypt enjoys in the Mediterranean region as a pillar of security and stability, in addition to its indispensable role in achieving peace and confronting terrorism and illegal immigration, in addition to the great European appreciation for the great economic potential that Egypt enjoys. The Council believes that this partnership will have major economic benefits for Egypt, and will contribute to attracting huge European investments to Egypt in many sectors, including industry, energy, gas, renewable energy, green hydrogen, and electrical connection projects, which contributes to creating many job opportunities for young people, opening large export markets and raising citizens' standard of living. The Council affirms that Egypt, with its natural and human potentials, unique location, the free trade agreements it has signed, its competitive labor costs, and advanced infrastructure, is qualified to be a gateway for European and international companies to access the Middle East and Africa. Source: State Information Service Egypt Geneva, Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Haydar Ali Ahmad, said that the so-called 'The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria' continues its role as a tool for states sponsoring terrorism that fabricates lies and presents reports that have nothing to do with reality, stressing that it has become a tool to polish the image of terrorist groups and promote illegal structures which constitute direct support for these groups and direct involvement in threatening Syria's territorial integrity. 'The so-called Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria continues, as usual, performing its assigned political function as its reports affirm the goal that lies behind its foundation and reveals the poor and contradictory methodology that featured its reports since a decade,' Ali Ahmad said in a statement on Monday during the fifty-fifth session of the UN Human Rights Council. Ambassador Ahmad wondered whether that was the role expected from huma n rights mechanisms, saying 'do not the crimes committed against Syria by the sponsoring states for that mandate deserve even a word of condemnation, is it not supposed to discuss responsibility about the acts of direct aggression by the Israeli occupation entity against residential neighborhoods and civil facilities, and the illegal Turkish-American military presence, supporting terrorism, plundering natural resources, threatening territorial integrity.' The Syrian diplomat added that Syria continues to work to ensure the voluntary return of all Syrian refugees to their homeland and calls for support and consideration of these efforts and to the immediate and unconditional end of the coercive measures imposed by the West that badly affect the lives of the Syrians. Source: Syrian Arab News Agency
