Egyptian House Speaker Ali Abdel Aal on Tuesday received Chairman of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with the Mashreq countries Marisa Matias and her accompanying members of the delegation.

Abel Aal affirmed Egypt's keenness on promoting bilateral relations with the European Union member states and institutions to deal effectively with common challenges, such as extremism, terrorism and the crisis of immigration and refugees.

He also reviewed Egypt's efforts to promote bilateral relations with the EU, and the ongoing negotiation process on priorities of cooperation during the next phase (2017-2020) through a comprehensive strategic perspective based on achieving the two sides' mutual interests.

The Speaker also affirmed Egypt's readiness to constructively discuss all the concerns of the European Parliament through bilateral channels concerned to discuss such issues, away from media statements that could adversely affect bilateral relations.

He called on the European Parliament to pay more attention to issues that concern Egypt, such as the fight against extremism, terrorism, cooperation in the field of illegal immigration, recovery of smuggled Egyptian funds and Islamophobia.

For her part, Matias said the meeting aimed to launch a constructive dialogue with the Egyptian House of Representatives to address all issues of mutual interest within a framework of mutual trust between the two sides.

Source: MENA