Under the aegis of the Global Mediterranean Policy (GMP) launched in 1972, an agreement between the European Economic Community and Egypt was signed in January 1977.[2] The framework laid out by the 1995 Euro-Mediterranean Partnership paved the way for some modest advances in the EU–Egypt relations,[3] leading to a new association agreement signed on 25 June 2001 in the context of the Barcelona process, that entered into force in June 2004.[4] An EU–Egypt Action Plan also entered into force in 2007.[3]