By Bisan Kassab – Al-Manassa –
The European Commission Records in an Unpublished Document a Human Rights Reality that Contradicts Its Official Statements
Last week, the European Commission announced the disbursement of €1.5 billion to Egypt, representing the second tranche of a total €4 billion loan, “following a positive assessment concluding that Egypt had successfully fulfilled the conditions required for the disbursement.”
However, the Commission’s briefing document concerning the disbursement of the second tranche of the loan, which contains its assessment of the extent to which Egypt has fulfilled the required conditions, was filled with criticism of the human rights situation in Egypt—to such an extent that the disbursement itself could be regarded as a breach of the condition requiring “Egypt to continue taking concrete and credible steps toward respecting effective democratic mechanisms, including a multi-party parliamentary system, the rule of law, and ensuring respect for human rights,” as stipulated in the loan agreement signed between the two sides.
This unpublished briefing, obtained by Al-Manassa, was addressed by the Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council, which includes the leaders and heads of government of the member states, as part of informing them of developments relating to the loan granted to Egypt under the Macro-Financial Assistance mechanism.
This loan forms part of a package of concessional loans to Egypt worth €5 billion, within the framework of an overall support package amounting to €7.4 billion, approved by the European Union on 17 March 2024 during the Egypt-EU Summit held in Cairo, amid the Israeli assault on Gaza, whose impact on shipping through the Red Sea led to a decline in Suez Canal revenues.
The European announcement releasing the second tranche of the loan was met with condemnation in a statement signed by 13 human rights organizations, which called on the European Union to clarify the reasons for the disbursement despite “the Egyptian authorities’ failure to comply with the rules governing this financial support.” The organizations accused the EU of “circumventing its own rules by providing vital financial support to an authoritarian government responsible for systematic repression.”
The Commission: Facade and Reality
In its statement announcing the release of the second tranche at the end of last July, the European Commission—the EU’s executive body responsible for proposing legislation, implementing policies, and managing the budget—said that its assessment had concluded that Egypt had “successfully fulfilled the conditions necessary for the release of the second payment.” These conditions included implementing the agreed economic policy reforms, continuing progress in implementing the International Monetary Fund programme, and fulfilling the political requirements set out in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the European Union and Egypt.
However, the details relating to the conditions concerning progress in political reform and respect for human rights—absent from the public statement—were prominently present in the unpublished document. It contained criticism of the continued use of torture, enforced disappearance, poor detention conditions, the deterioration of the situation of refugees and migrants, security arrest campaigns targeting them, the detention of journalists, and the continuing absence of legislation to combat violence against women.
According to Samar El-Husseiny, Executive Director of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, this contradiction reveals that:
“The briefing document has become nothing more than a bureaucratic exercise, necessary only to complete the procedures for releasing the tranche, which it appears the Commission had already decided from the outset to approve.”
The unpublished document is entitled “Macro-Financial Assistance to the Arab Republic of Egypt – Disbursement of the Second Installment,” issued by the European Commission in July 2026 to assess the extent to which Egypt had fulfilled the conditions required for releasing the second tranche of the €4 billion loan.
Speaking to Al-Manassa, the human rights activist explained this decision by saying that the European Union is keen to maintain Egypt’s goodwill, particularly “following recent European legislative developments allowing asylum seekers to be returned, if they passed through a stable country such as Egypt on their way to Europe, to that country rather than to their countries of origin. This further increases the importance of Europe’s relations with Egypt, since it will not only serve as a buffer preventing migrants from reaching Europe, but will also become a destination for their return and resettlement.”
Mohamed Abdel Salam, Executive Director of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, agreed with this assessment. He told Al-Manassa that this reflects the importance the Egyptian regime has acquired for the European Union on several geopolitical issues, “particularly the role it plays in preventing migration to Europe, in addition to the convergence of views regarding the war in Gaza, for example, and opposition to displacement.”
Al-Manassa attempted to contact the European Commission for comment, but it had not received a response by the time this report was published.
They Call Them “Challenges”
According to the document, the Commission believes that Egypt faces “major challenges” in the areas of democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and ensuring accountability for violations and abuses. It adds that practices of arbitrary detention, poor detention conditions, the absence of unannounced monitoring visits to detention facilities, torture, enforced disappearance, and pressure exerted on human rights defenders continue unabated.
The document criticizes the deteriorating situation of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Egypt, particularly in light of the arbitrary arrest campaigns that, according to the Commission, mainly targeted Sudanese and Syrians during the first quarter of 2026. It estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 refugees and asylum seekers were detained.
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Although the Commission’s briefing implicitly praises Egypt’s Asylum Law as the first law in the region regulating asylum, it simultaneously points to concerns requiring special attention regarding its implementation, foremost among them the absence of an explicit provision enshrining the principle of non-refoulement, one of the fundamental principles of international refugee law, as well as the need to ensure a smooth transition from the system previously administered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the new national framework.
The negative observations contained in the briefing concerning Egypt’s human rights situation also include what it describes as “unequal treatment of certain religious minorities and non-believers,” in addition to restrictions imposed on civil society, freedom of expression, and freedom of the media. In this context, it refers to two petitions submitted by the Journalists’ Syndicate seeking the release of 17 detained journalists, more than fifteen of whom had exceeded the legal limits for pretrial detention, while two others remained in pretrial detention in separate cases.
More generally, the criticisms listed in the briefing under the heading “Challenges” repeat those contained in the unpublished briefing prepared in connection with the approval of the first tranche of the same loan. In addition to the issues already mentioned, that earlier document criticized the continued issuance of death sentences, what it described as “transnational repression”—a term coined by a number of human rights organizations referring to the targeting of human rights defenders abroad—and the continuing absence of legislation criminalizing violence against women.
So Much for the “Achievements”!
Alongside the criticism, the document repeatedly attempts to “magnify” any official measure in order to present it as evidence of progress in the human rights situation. Among the examples it cites are controversial measures such as the new Code of Criminal Procedure, despite the fact that it has itself been the subject of numerous criticisms, including one issued by the European Commission itself in the briefing document accompanying the first tranche of the same loan, obtained by Al-Manassa last January. The current briefing makes no mention whatsoever of the parliamentary elections held last November.
According to the briefing document on the second tranche, the “achievements” of the Egyptian authorities in the field of human rights reforms include the reduction in the implementation of death sentences. The document states:
“Reports by Amnesty International indicate a generally positive trend toward reducing the number of executions in Egypt compared with the exceptionally high levels recorded in 2020 (107 cases), which is noteworthy.”
It adds:
“Although the number of executions in Egypt continues to raise concern, the figures recorded in 2024 and 2025 were significantly lower, reaching 13 and 23 cases respectively.”
Commenting on this, Sherif Azer, Director of Programmes at the Egyptian Commission for Human Rights and a Visiting Professor of International Law, told Al-Manassa:
“The implementation of death sentences may indeed appear to have declined compared with 2020, when Egypt ranked among the countries carrying out the largest number of executions worldwide. However, comparing the current figures with 2020 creates a positive impression that would disappear if the comparison were made with 2023, when executions had fallen to only eight cases. This means that 2024 and 2025 actually witnessed a reversal of the downward trend, with executions increasing once again.”
In the same context, the document praises Article 22 of the new Code of Criminal Procedure, which will, for the first time, allow reconciliation with the victim’s heirs in certain murder cases to be recognized “as a legal basis for mitigating the sentence.” At the same time, however, it calls for executions to be suspended as a first step, followed by the introduction of an official moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether.
The document also expects that, once the new law comes into force next October, detainees whose pretrial detention has exceeded two years will be released, following the reduction of the maximum period of pretrial detention from two years to eighteen months.
However, according to Azer, the new law contains no provision preventing the continued practice of “recycling” defendants into successive criminal cases in order to keep them in detention by circumventing the legal maximum period of pretrial detention.
The document also welcomes the release of 3,202 detainees, including the blogger and journalist Mohamed Oxygen, political activists Sherif El-Rouby and Nermine Hussein, as well as the lifting of the travel ban imposed on Hoda Abdel Wahab, Executive Director of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession.
Nevertheless, the Commission acknowledges that the same period during which these releases took place also witnessed new arrests, in addition to the continued practice of recycling defendants into new cases, as well as the continued imposition of travel bans and asset freezes on some individuals even after their release.
Praise for Measures Still Under Preparation
The Commission’s document accompanying the disbursement of the second tranche also praises measures that the Egyptian authorities have begun but not yet completed, such as the preparation of a new National Human Rights Strategy, which, according to the document itself, is expected to be submitted to the President later this year, after the current strategy expires this August.
Although no official announcement has been made in this regard, the document states that extensive consultations have been held across the country, including in Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, Port Said, and Minya, and that the drafting and consultation process has involved civil society organizations and independent experts. According to the document, the new strategy is expected to incorporate all the recommendations accepted by Egypt during the 2025 Universal Periodic Review.
The Commission’s commendations also include legislative initiatives that the Egyptian authorities have only introduced, but which have not yet been enacted. Among these are the government’s family law bills currently before Parliament. This was criticized by Nevin Obeid, Executive Director of the New Woman Foundation, who told Al-Manassa:
“The three family law bills have not yet been officially published. We have not even seen the text of the Family Support Fund bill. As for the two circulating drafts—the Egyptian Family Law bill and the Christian Family Law bill—they are unofficial texts, and we do not know whether they represent the final versions or not.”
Given the vague wording of the loan agreement, which lacks measurable criteria for assessing Egypt’s commitment to political and human rights reform, the legitimacy of releasing the second tranche despite these violations ultimately remains subject to political calculations and the discretion of the parties involved.
The lender can always choose to apply the conditions strictly when the borrower shows resistance to its will, just as it can choose to be more lenient at other times—including when it is confronted with the prospect of tens of thousands of impoverished migrants knocking at its door.
At such times, democracy and human rights may come to rank among its lowest priorities
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Translated from:
https://manassa.news/stories/33214?
Accompanying photo: designed by Ahmed Bilal – Al-Manassa.
