Europeans Are Courting Algeria Through Its Old Friends.

The European Union still hopes to overcome the disagreements with Algeria within the framework of the stalled partnership agreement, which officially began in 2005. This can be seen through the activities carried out by the EU delegation to Algeria, in cooperation with the Algerian Agency for Investment Promotion.

The Europeans were keen to motivate Algeria with the successful experience of some of its members, such as Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which are Eastern European countries whose economies were directed (socialist).
Nevertheless, they succeeded in achieving the desired transformation, which is what the Europeans hope Algeria will achieve today, considering that it would contribute to strengthening the faltering partnership in recent years.
This comes after Algeria’s evaluation of this agreement, which concluded that it did not achieve the desired goals due to the European party’s failure to respect its commitments, on one hand, and the damage caused to the national economy by this agreement, on the other hand.

According to the vision that the invited experts attempted to convey at the forum held on Tuesday at the “Marriott” hotel under the title “Investment and Economic Diversification: Exchanges on the Experiences of Central European Countries,” the European Union hopes to see Algeria following in the footsteps of countries like Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic in its economic transformation, from a directed (socialist) economy to an economy free from administrative constraints.
This is a situation in which Algeria’s economy resembles that of the three countries at an earlier stage in its history.

The Algerian party’s interest in this approach is evident through the participation of the Director General of the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency, Omar Rekache, who responded to the concerns of the European party by indicating a review of the legislative framework. This includes the issuance of a new investment law that enshrines legal security and provides all guarantees for investors, as well as offering serious incentives for those wishing to invest.
Additionally, it involves exchanging expertise with Central European countries that have presented successful models in achieving economic transformation and benefiting from them, which contributes to increasing flows of productive investments and mutual benefit between the two parties.

The European side was keen, through the discussions, to come up with practical recommendations that would contribute to achieving the goals of implementing the nearly stalled partnership agreement, which among its objectives is to intensify economic cooperation between Algeria and the European Union in all areas of mutual benefit.

The “European-Algerian Partnership for Sustainable Investment” initiative, launched in 2023, represents an opportunity to enhance economic cooperation between the European Union and its member states with Algeria, particularly by encouraging European foreign direct investment projects and convergence in mutually beneficial sectors and value chains.

The project also focuses on promoting the green transition, energy security, and job creation.

The objectives of this project are primarily to support economic cooperation and in the field of energy, through the establishment of a group of Algerian-European economic experts to continue the economic dialogue and develop joint studies, organize events on economic relations between European countries and Algeria, as well as encourage foreign direct investment, and develop information tools about the investment environment in Algeria.
This aligns with Algeria’s strategic directions aimed at achieving diverse and sustainable economic development, relying on stimulating investment in productive sectors that create job opportunities and generate wealth.

According to observers, Algeria’s embrace of the economic transformation ideas of some Central European countries aligns with the bridges Algeria has begun to build with these countries since it decided to make Italy the center for marketing its gas in the old continent.
This decision, as is known, came in the wake of the crisis that erupted between Algeria and Spain, and this transformation has enabled it to penetrate new energy markets in Central and Eastern Europe.