Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the preliminary assessment of the European Union's election observation mission to Egypt on 29 May, which claimed that the presidential election in Egypt was administered in an environment that fell short of the principles of the new constitution.

The European Union election observation mission to Egypt issued a preliminary statement on 29 May. Their headline assessment was “Presidential elections administered in line with the law, in an environment falling short of constitutional principles”. We followed the presidential election closely and staff from our Cairo Embassy took part in the EU's Electoral Observation Mission. The EU Observation Mission will issue its full report in due course.

The EU Observation Mission reflected concern about the Egyptian public's ability to express political dissent and exercise freedom of speech or association. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), raised these concerns in the run up to the elections with his Egyptian counterpart, most recently on 14 May, and in a statement on 3 June. We look to President Sisi to take steps to implement the rights contained in Egypt's constitution by opening up political space, especially with regard to freedom of expression and association.