Vice President of European Union Supports GERD Negotiations

The Vice President of the European Union (EU) Josep Borrell announced, on Saturday, that the Union is ready to support the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations in on order to reach an agreement for Ethiopia and all the downstream countries. Borrell also confirmed that the EU is following up the negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

[caption id="attachment_158537" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The Nile river[/caption]

Borrell said that even though GERD is one of the geostrategic bases for Ethiopia and the neighboring countries, EU should take into consideration all the affected countries . He also announced that now, after filling the dam, it is time to find a proper solution with the affected countries.

According to Borrell, the tripartite negotiations are not easy but EU is ready to support the negotiations to reach the desired agreement.

The EU has been following up the tripartite negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the last few months. The negotiations showed some progress under the supervision of the African Union and EU.

Ethiopia started building the GERD on the blue Nile in 2011 to generate electricity but Egypt is concerned that the dam will decrease the Egyptian share of the water which is more than 55 billion meters square annually.

In July 21st, 2020, the Ethiopian government announced the filling of the GERD before saying that the dam got filled due to heavy rains on the Ethiopian plateau. The filling of the dam happened before reaching any agreements with Egypt and Sudan.

Despite the signing of a declaration of principles between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in March, 2015, no agreement was reached yet.