PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
EU threatens Egypt with restrictive measures
Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – An extraordinary meeting of ambassadors from EU member countries began here Monday to explore ways of imposing restrictive measures if violence continues in Egypt.
In a joint declaration, the European Council chairman, Herman Van Rompuy, and the European Commission chairman, José Manuel Durao Barroso, said the European bloc would review its policy towards Egypt, if the violence “doesn’t stop immediately”.
In the declaration, the European officials “regret strongly” the fact that the efforts made by the international community, to which the European Union participated, failed to reopen dialogue between the warring parties.
It said that there were no alternatives to dialogue, insisting that all the Egyptian stakeholders must take part in it to relaunch the process leading to elections and the return to civil rule.
Experts say that the European Union, as part of the restrictive measures, might place an embargo on the sale of arms to Egypt and suspend financing, worth 5 billion euros, for the period 2013-2018.
Egypt has seen scores of deaths since last Wednesday when the security forces stormed two camps in the capital, where supporters of Morsi had been holding sit-ins for six weeks. More than 630 people were killed by the security forces.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which organised the sit-ins, called for a march in Cairo last Friday, ignoring the state of emergency imposed last Wednesday. The subsequent clashes between the protesters and security forces left 173 people dead.
The military ousted Morsi on 3 July after days of a sit-in at Tahrir Square in Cairo by tens of thousands of people who accused him of pursuing an agenda for the Muslim Brotherhood instead of pushing the country forward.
-0- PANA AK/SSB/IBA/MSA/VAO 19Aug2013
In a joint declaration, the European Council chairman, Herman Van Rompuy, and the European Commission chairman, José Manuel Durao Barroso, said the European bloc would review its policy towards Egypt, if the violence “doesn’t stop immediately”.
In the declaration, the European officials “regret strongly” the fact that the efforts made by the international community, to which the European Union participated, failed to reopen dialogue between the warring parties.
It said that there were no alternatives to dialogue, insisting that all the Egyptian stakeholders must take part in it to relaunch the process leading to elections and the return to civil rule.
Experts say that the European Union, as part of the restrictive measures, might place an embargo on the sale of arms to Egypt and suspend financing, worth 5 billion euros, for the period 2013-2018.
Egypt has seen scores of deaths since last Wednesday when the security forces stormed two camps in the capital, where supporters of Morsi had been holding sit-ins for six weeks. More than 630 people were killed by the security forces.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which organised the sit-ins, called for a march in Cairo last Friday, ignoring the state of emergency imposed last Wednesday. The subsequent clashes between the protesters and security forces left 173 people dead.
The military ousted Morsi on 3 July after days of a sit-in at Tahrir Square in Cairo by tens of thousands of people who accused him of pursuing an agenda for the Muslim Brotherhood instead of pushing the country forward.
-0- PANA AK/SSB/IBA/MSA/VAO 19Aug2013
