During a hearing at the European Parliament's foreign affairs (AFET) committee on Thursday 21 June, the leader of the Egyptian house of representatives, Ali Abdel Aal, invited the sub-committee on human rights (DROI) to visit Egypt, following a suggestion from several MEPs.
The situation of the respect of fundamental rights emerged as being of great concern in the AFET committee. "We would like to call for respect of the fundamental freedoms that are written in the Egyptian Constitution", the committee chair, David McAllister (EPP, Germany), stated.
The MEPs asked Abdel Aal about the hardening of the oppression and the detentions faced by protesters, bloggers and campaigners, especially feminists in Egypt. They also questioned the effective enforcement of the law on press freedom, as well as the Egyptian participation in the investigation into the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni (see EUROPE 11574).
Two of the MEPs, Cristian Dan Preda (EPP, Romania) and Barbara Lochbihler (Greens/EFA, Germany) suggested organising a visit of the DROI committee to Egypt to assess the situation. Abdel Aal responded positively to this initiative. "We are very open. We have nothing to hide. If our friends from the DROI committee would like to visit Egypt, they will be welcome", he said.
He had earlier defended Egypt's performance in the respect of fundamental rights thanks to the new legislation established since the adoption of the new Constitution in 2014, notably the legislation on press freedom and on equality between the Coptic minority and Muslims in the construction of two places of worship. (Original version in French by Carmen García)