The eighth EU – Egypt Association Council is due to meet on 20 December 2018, after the structure resumed in 2015 and met for the first time in seven years in 2017. Egypt is arguably more at ease with the revised and less conditional European Neighbourhood Policy structures. The EU – Egypt relationship holds great potential for closer cooperation on socio-economic issues, especially on energy, and promises enhanced relations through other multilateral mechanisms such as the Union for the Mediterranean. The EU continues to praise Egypt’s role in tackling illegal immigration from Africa to Europe. However, political issues such as human rights and EU democracy promotion remain unresolved, whilst progress on private sector economic activity, openness and tackling youth unemployment has been modest.