Cairo, Egypt, 9 April, 2025

Your Excellencies,
Ministers, Ladies and gentlemen,

To begin with, on behalf of the European Union, I wish to express appreciation for the important work done by Egypt in presiding over the Khartoum Process – especially on climate-induced displacement, on skills mobility, and on anti-smuggling initiatives. Your leadership has strengthened the Process, by making it more relevant and more effective.  

And now, we have the Cairo Declaration and the Cairo Action Plan. So we can all see the fruits of your work, and the success that you have guided us to.

Excellency, allow me to say: shkraan jazilaan [“shoo-kraan ja-zee-laan" – thank you very much]

But today we are also handing over the presidency – if you like, we are going from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the glass pyramid of the Louvre!

So, allow me also to wish to you, Minister Buffet, and to the incoming French presidency every success. I know you will set an ambitious agenda. You can count on my and the Commission’s full support for the work that lies ahead.

Today also marks another significant milestone: this is the first ministerial meeting since the launch of the Khartoum Process in 2014. With so many of you here today, we have a great opportunity to deepen our relationships, and I am looking forward to that.

But even beyond that: the fact that we are here today also reflects something very important about the bigger changes facing us.

The world order around us is changing rapidly. On the one hand, the global dimension is becoming more and more important – driven by technological breakthroughs or global issues like climate change and pandemics.

On the other hand, some of the older models of international cooperation are under pressure, as we transition further into a multi-polar world. This makes cooperation of the kind we are engaged in here, more important than ever before. In fact, it is vital. Therefore, I am confident that this will not be our last ministerial meeting – on the contrary, we need to build on this model and give it a second decade even more successful than the first.

As EU Commissioner for Migration I say that migration remains one of the big opportunities of our day. And yes, I said ‘opportunity’, and not ‘threat’. Because if we get it right, migration can help fill skills gaps; it can generate positive spillovers for the EU and for its partners in Africa; and it can forge lasting bonds between our nations that promote peace and economic cooperation. It can generate growth both for the countries of origin, and for the destination countries.

Promoting labour mobility means combating relentlessly the smuggling of migrants, which is the basic enabler of irregular migration and a constant source of suffering for countless victims every year. And we can do this better only if we work together, also in formats like the Khartoum Process. 

We are planning the second international conference of the Global Alliance against migrant smuggling towards the end of the year, and I hope to see all of you there, along with many more leaders from around the world. I have no doubt that the Conference will serve as a catalyst for stronger engagement and closer cooperation. 

At the same time, we continue to tackle more and deeper crises and conflicts. We will continue to pursue our humanitarian work with consistency and commitment, whatever the future might bring.

We can face the challenges and make the most of the opportunities, but only if migration is managed well. For the EU, we still have work to do. Our Pact on Migration and Asylum, an ambitious and fundamental reform for migration and asylum management, has been adopted and is now in the implementation phase. By June 2026 we expect it to be fully operational, setting also the framework for developing the EU’s international migration cooperation. 

This is why good regional and bilateral cooperation with our partners, in a whole of route approach, is probably the most important component of our future work.

In this changing world, the EU recognises the need for solid global partnerships. We need partnerships based on mutual respect, dialogue and on mutual benefit –
-    as part of the Khartoum Process, 
-    through our connections with the African Union – 
-    or simply through more and better bilateral dialogue.

Africa and Europe have always been neighbors and always will be. It is up to us, to make sure we stay good partners. It is up to us to tackle the challenges that lie ahead – the common challenges that we face – and to do it together! 

Thank you.