EU tells Egypt to do better on reforms, or face aid cuts

. . . and in other news, I thought the Billion or two the US was sending to Egypt was a lot of money. Apparently we're the cheapskate of the bunch on this one. The EU has us outspent for influence in Egypt at the moment, would be my guess. That may not last forever though, by the sound of this.

The European Union warned Egypt on Wednesday it could lose funds from its 5 billion euro($6.5 billion) aid package if democratic reforms fail to satisfy Brussels, and said Cairo has already lost some additional funding.

In a report on reforms in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the European Commission said Cairo has shown in sufficient progress since the 2011 revolt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak and handed power to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement.

It listed “serious setbacks” in areas such as human rights, and criticized Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi for pushing through constitutional changes that have plunged the country into “a deeply divisive political crisis”.

Source

I'd say with over 6 billion dollars at stake here, they'll likely make some adjustments as the European Union is asking.

I am rather curious though... How much was it they were looking to rob from bank accounts on Cyprus? Odd thing about that, isn't it? They're so broke, they must take draconian measures to flat stealing money out of savings accounts ....yet bilions worth of aid to Egypt? Well, at least the US isn't the only nation with a rather hard to understand set of priorities.

I was starting to feel like we were unusual in being about half insane about foreign policy. Looks like we're about in the average for that department. Eh?

Err wait what?



Shrugs... Yes let's aid the terminal patient. Sorry for the harsh words but that's what Egypt is.

reply to post by Senduko


I gotta admit, i laughed pretty hard at your picture

reply to post by Senduko

It does kinda make your brain freeze, doesn't it? They're giving aid to nations while nations within the EU are looking to others to GET aid. (Cyprus looking to Russia). I'm guessing Egypt isn't saddled with unreachable and unbelievable demands just to be given a life line, how the Cypriot people just were. Amazing, isn't it? Just flat out amazing.

Perhaps that aid money would just solve that whole issue on Cyprus? It really is close to the same amount, isn't it?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


It one of those things you can't wrap your head around, Its like you said that aid is pretty much the same amount they're asking from Cyprus, so we are to believe that noone in the EU administration saw this coming in Cyprus? So they went to work and then out of the blue, ah btw Cyprus is pretty much bankrup. What you didn't get the memo?

Also some strange comments.

Failure to address EU concerns could result in cutbacks in aid for Mursi's cash-strapped government, the EU's commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Fuele, told a news conference.

Eu concerns? We are definitely starting to act like the US. So if any member could clarify what exactly could concern to the EU could be? Would be great

EU diplomats say Brussels' relationship with Cairo is complicated by the desire to maintain good relations with the government, in part because of its role in regional diplomacy, particularly relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Now this paragraph does make you frown no?

Why is the EU sending cash to North Africa?

Simple.

North African countries are not currently producing enough food to feed their religion inspired population growth, and don't have enough cash to buy in sufficient food ever since the Chinese became rich enough to buy up grain to feed their cattle. If we don't bolster them up, we'll have tens of millions of starving North Africans invading us (in leaky boats with starving babies, not guns). The alternative is to patrol the Med and sink boats full of starving kids.

Well they might join the BRICS to make it E-BRICS You can google the news as its fairy new.

"I am hoping BRICS would one day become E-BRICS where E stands for Egypt. I hope E-BRICS would emerge when we start moving the economy," the president was quoted as saying by the South Asian paper.
BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and recent member South Africa, used to designate a bloc of large, fast-growing economies which were initially projected to overtake the current major global economies in the first half of the twenty first century.

SOURCE

What I find amusing is that they call it foriegn aid. Its more a bribe. Here is 6 billion, now we expect you to award 12 billion in contracts to EU companies. The US does the same and so does everyone else. Its not aid if you make a profit off of it. The best way to think of foreign aid is that it is like when you get a check for $5000 in the mail that is only good if you use it to buy a $30,000 car from the local dealership.

reply to post by MrSpad
Or at times, the aid money is nothing more than laundering mechanism (NGOs, Charities etc etc).

The US is doing the same stupid thing. We cannot have tours of the White House, but we can give one billion dollars of aid to Egypt. What is wrong with these losers.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

first EU wanted Egypt to change the president, now EU tell Egypt what reforms to use