Civil society raises concerns over Europol-Egypt cooperation agreements
41 civil society organisations and experts sound the alarm about negotiations on a working agreement between Europol and Egypt. If signed it would risk legitimising illegal practices used by Egyptian police and pave the way for an exchange for personal data.
Europol-Egypt agreement could negatively impact human rights
We publish an open letter together with other migrants, refugees, digital and human rights organisations to share our serious concerns about the potential cooperation of the European Union with Egypt as well as its impact on people’s human rights in Egypt.
The EU is negotiating a working agreement between Europol and Egypt in the field of law enforcement despite flagrant human rights violations and political repression by Egyptian authorities. We ask the EU to halt the agreement and that the European Commission to publish what, if any, due diligence has been conducted on this arrangement.
Egypt has an estimated 60.000 political prisoners. The UN Committee against Torture and Human Rights Committee found “consistent allegations” of “systematic use of torture and ill-treatment by police officers, prison guards” and the military, “mainly against political opponents and Government critics”. The UN also pointed to the overly broad definition of terrorism which has been used to silence political dissidents. This is extremely worrying considering that the EU’s stated objective for police cooperation with Egypt is the fight against terrorism and the “prevention of radicalisation”.
The Europol working agreement would risk legitimising the Egyptian police’s illegal practices
This deal with Europol could politically legitimise the Egyptian police as cooperation partner of the European Union, despite well-documented involvement in human rights violations and enforcing dictatorial rule in the country. Even if exchanges are limited to non-personal data, there is a considerable risk that this cooperation between the EU and Egypt undermines accountability and justice and that it facilitates further violations of human rights.
We request that the Commission’s clarifies its assessment process of the planned cooperation with Egyptian authorities in light of their highlighted human rights record.
The EU is paving the way for a future agreement with Egypt
The potential working agreement would could be a step towards a deeper cooperation relation with Egyptian authorities, as the EU is pushing Egypt to start negotiating an international agreement with Europol, that would allow for the exchange of personal data. This is part of a strategy by the EU to work with countries around the Mediterranean on police and judicial cooperation, border control and migration, which fundamentally clashes with its fundamental rights standards.
Our requests to the European Commission
We call upon the European Commission to:
- State whether it conducted any human rights or data protection due diligence, including an impact assessment, as requested by the European Parliament and, if so, make it public.
- Halt all attempts to sign any sort of police cooperation agreement with Egypt.
- Use the EU’s leverage with Egypt to demand reforms that protect human rights, civil liberties, justice and democracy.