(1)

The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part (1), was concluded by the Union by means of Council Decision 2004/635/EC (2).

(2)

On 18 June 2007, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, of the other part, on a Framework Agreement between the European Union and the Arab Republic of Egypt on the general principles for the participation of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Union programmes (‘the Protocol’).

(3)

The negotiations have been concluded on 8 March 2023.

(4)

The objective of the Protocol is to lay down the financial and technical rules enabling the Arab Republic of Egypt to participate in certain Union programmes. The horizontal framework established by the Protocol sets out principles for economic, financial and technical cooperation measures and allows the Arab Republic of Egypt to receive assistance, in particular financial assistance, from the Union pursuant to those programmes.

(5)

The framework set up by the Protocol applies only to those programmes for which the relevant constitutive legal acts provide for the possibility of the participation of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The signing and provisional application of the Protocol does not, therefore, entail the exercise of powers under the various sectoral policies which are exercised when establishing the programmes.

(6)

The Protocol should be signed on behalf of the Union and applied on a provisional basis, pending the completion of the procedures necessary for its entry into force,