Summary & Updates:
Today Egypt has close ties with the United States, and is the second largest beneficiary under the Camp David peace treaty. The $2.1 billion worth of economic and military aid it receives each year under the settlement is slowly tapering off, but money for Egypt still dwarfs the rest of America’s foreign-aid budget. This is explained by the Congress’ belief that aid for Egypt underpins both the Middle East peace process and Egyptian economic reforms. Mainly as a result of the economic reforms he has initiated, Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, is viewed positively in the United States. His relative success in instituting reform has lead most Americans to trust that he is leading Egypt along the right path.
As a key leader in the Middle East, Egypt was instrumental in the formation of the Arab League. The Egyptian government first proposed the Arab League in 1943 in order to achieve closer cooperation without the loss of self-rule that would result from total union. Egypt's membership was suspended in 1979 after it signed a peace treaty with Israel; the league's headquarters was moved from Cairo, Egypt, to Tunis, Tunisia. In 1987 Arab leaders decided to renew diplomatic ties with Egypt. Egypt was readmitted to the league in 1989 and the league's headquarters was moved back to Cairo. Further information on Egypt’s participation in international organizations can be found in the Links section.
Economic reforms, while not proceeding as quickly as some desire, are at least being earnestly attempted. This is in contrast to the relative lack of political reform. Mubarak is no tyrant, but it is no secret that authority is heavily concentrated in the executive branch. Freedom House recently improved Egypt’s civil liberties score from a six to a five, but it still classifies the county as “Not Free.” The press faces a number of restrictions from vaguely worded statutes in the Press Law, the Publications Law, the penal code, and libel laws. Direct criticism of the president, his family, or the military, as well as discussions of Christian-Muslim tensions and expressions of views regarded as anti-Islamic, can result in the imprisonment of journalists and the closure of publications. While President Mubarak once pledged to end prison sentences for press offenses, this promise remained unfulfilled.
As a result of government restrictions on the licensing of political parties, state control over television and radio stations, and systemic irregularities in the electoral process, the 454-seat People's Assembly (Majlis al-Sha'b), or lower house of parliament, is perpetually dominated by the ruling NDP, as is the partially elected upper house, the Consultative Council (Majlis al-Shura). The assembly has limited influence on government policy, and the executive initiates almost all legislation. In addition to guaranteed control of the parliament, the president directly appoints the prime minister, the cabinet, and the governors of the country's 26 provinces. The most recent election was the first to allow more than one candidate to run for president, but Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP) had a virtual veto over who might run. As a result any potentially effective opposition candidates were quickly eliminated from the race, and the most successful candidate, Ayman Nour with 8% of the vote, has been jailed.
As well as controlling a majority of media outlets, the government has significant control over opposition political parties. Emergency laws were enacted in 1981 and have remained in place ever since, despite Mubarak’s recent campaign promises to repeal them. The government purports that the laws target only drug-smugglers and terrorists, but they grant broad powers of arrest which many claim have been used to quash political opposition. While laws mainly prohibit religious political parties, a state-appointed court rejected applications to form political parties filed by mild Islamists and by secular Arab nationalists. These laws have failed to stem the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Parliament, whose members run and are elected as independents.
It is widely thought that the Egyptian government may be causing more problems for itself than it is solving. By making it difficult for moderate secular political parties to succeed, it reduces the number of options available to voters looking for an alternative to the status quo. As a result, the only parties left are the extreme religious ones, and otherwise moderate voters are driven into radical parties.
Egypt is an active participant in a number of international organizations. In addition to taking part in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the African Union, Egypt is a founding member of the Arab League, the African Economic Community, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Egypt’s relationship with the European Union under the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is both economic and social. The EU is Egypt’s biggest trading partner, and currently accounts for 42% of Egyptian exports and 37% of imports, with the balance of trade in the EU's favor. Additionally, Egypt has benefited from a total committed funding of more than €1 billion from the European Union MEDA program since 1995. The main impact of this funding has been to help maintain economic, social and political stability, and future funding will be geared towards furthering reform in Egypt. A significant portion of this is dedicated for programs to integrate and simplify market transactions, but the EU has also made socio-economic development a priority. It has already spent 84 million Euros and pledged another 100 million for support to the social and health sectors, strengthening democracy and human rights, an Integrated Local Development Program (Upper Egypt and South Sinai), and encouragement of Social Development and Civil Society. |
