The Egyptian Parliament rejected a decision issued Friday by the European Parliament calling for serious steps to be taken by European institutions to stop human rights violations in Egypt, and calling for the extradition of the killers of the Italian researcher Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016.
The Egyptian Parliament said that the European Parliament’s decision on the human rights situation in Egypt is unacceptable and incompatible with the Egyptian-European strategic partnership.
The council added in a statement that the decision has politicized goals and an unbalanced approach.
The Council called on the European Parliament to refrain from politicizing human rights issues to serve political or electoral purposes and to move away from double standards.
He added that it was the first for the European Parliament to give an objective view of the Egyptian efforts to preserve security and stability, not only at the domestic level, but also at the regional level.
European decision
On Friday, the European Parliament voted on a draft resolution by a large majority, calling on European institutions to take serious steps to stop human rights violations in Egypt, as well as demanding the release of prisoners of conscience, including fellow Mahmoud Hussein who has been detained in Egypt 4 years ago.
The resolution also called for stopping restrictions on the work of civil society organizations and their workers, in addition to setting up a mechanism at the end of next January to monitor and report human rights violations in Egypt.
The e-mail vote was held for precautionary considerations related to the Corona pandemic.
"We want the truth for Julio Regeni and hand over his killers, and we want freedom for Patrick Zaki," said European Parliament President David Sassoli.
He added that the European representatives assured Egypt today that there is no compromise on truth, justice and human rights.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Brussels, Abdullah Al-Shami, said that the draft resolution was approved by 434 out of 685 European deputies.
He stressed that the decision includes two clauses calling on the Egyptian authorities to cooperate in the case of Giulio Regeni and to hand over the accused to the Italian judiciary.
The position of the United Nations
For its part, the United Nations said that any possible European Union sanctions decision against Egypt is sovereign.
This came in a press conference held by Stefan Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through a video conference with journalists at the permanent headquarters of the International Organization in New York.
Dujarric said that the decisions of the European Union are sovereign, and we do not have to discuss what it may or may not decide, and he stressed that what the Union will do in this regard is up to him.
The Italian House of Representatives Speaker Roberto Fico said earlier that after all the judicial investigations into the murder of citizen and researcher Giulio Regeni, "we must be a more angry country."
Fico confirmed - in an interview with the Italian parliamentary press - that he personally started to move at the European level to highlight human rights violations in Egypt, adding that the European Union must take strict decisions against it, saying that there are other European countries waiting to seize the opportunity to overcome this.