At a press conference held on Wednesday, 1 January, after the weekly Council of Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that Egypt has received the first installment of a partnership program with the European Union, worth one billion euros.

According to the announcements of the Egyptian government, the European loan given to the Central Bank last Friday is part of the framework of the macrofinancial and budgetary support mechanism (MFA). According to Rania Al-Mashat, the Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, “the European Commission has approved the payment of one billion euros in financing to Egypt, under the AMF mechanism. This is the first phase of a financing worth 5 billion euros that will be made available to Egypt until 2027.” In reality, the European Union and the Government of Egypt have signed the AMF agreement which should provide Egypt with 5 billion euros by 2027. This MFA constitutes the vast majority of the financial assistance of 7.4 billion euros that will be provided by the EU under the partnership signed in March. The memorandum of understanding concerning the first AMF operation defines a set of relevant, macro-critical and endogenous reforms