Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla met with Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Union Commission for the European Green Deal and the European Commissioner for Climate Action, and his accompanying delegation.

The meeting focused on various areas of cooperation between Egypt and the European Union (EU), especially in the field of energy, and how to integrate and strengthen energy transformation efforts in order to achieve the desired climate and environmental goals.

During the meeting, El-Molla confirmed that the African-European summit last February witnessed several fruitful meetings with many officials getting ready to prepare initiatives and set action plans for the upcoming period.

Noting out that in addition to several discussions with many European companies to examine the latest technologies specialized in reducing emissions, El Molla said that Egypt is preparing national strategies in the same field, especially the national hydrogen strategy. He emphasized the value of constructive cooperation with Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum members and foreign companies in the framework of activities of the forum and the system of integration and interdependence among its member states by utilizing the capabilities of each country and expanding the export of liquefied gas to help provide a portion of Europe’s energy needs.

El Molla also mentioned that Egypt has a distinct infrastructure, a large manufacturing base, and distinct skills of human cadres and that modern technologies will improve the efficiency of operations in the oil sector, pointing out that the economic reforms implemented by Egypt laid a major basis for rectifying the energy structure and contributed strongly to reconsidering the Egyptian energy mix and relying on more renewable energies.

Timmermans confirmed that Egypt is a strategic partner of the European Union and that relations between the two sides are extended due to Egypt’s important and pioneering role and its distinguished geographic location in the region. He added that the EU is cooperating with many countries to achieve a just energy transformation for all, referring to the efforts of the EU to seek Egypt’s assistance to expand solar panel manufacturing activities to generate electricity.

During the meeting, they agreed that both sides would build teams to discuss opportunities for increasing cooperation in various energy fields and to prepare memoranda of understanding to be signed at the upcoming COP 27.

It is worthy of noting that the European Green Deal is a set of policies and initiatives of the European Commission with the aim of achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.