Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, met on Wednesday with interim President Adly Mansour as part of her first visit to Egypt since the ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.
The half-hour meeting discussed the latest developments and the army’s roadmap for post-Morsi Egypt, a diplomatic source with the EU told Anadolu Agency.
The EU’s top diplomat also met with Vice-President for International Affairs Mohamed ElBaradei and Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Ashton and Sisi exchanged views on political developments in Egypt and discussed issues of mutual concern and ways of boosting cooperation between Egypt and EU member-states, an army statement said.
Egypt's army ousted Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, on July 3 following mass protests against his regime.
It subsequently suspended the constitution and named Mansour, the head of Egypt's constitutional court, as interim president.
Thousands of Morsi supporters have since taken to the streets nationwide in mass demonstrations and sit-ins to defend his legitimacy and demand his reinstatement.
In a statement on Sunday, Ashton said the EU was following recent developments in Egypt "with deep concern".
She said the Egyptian army "must accept and respect the constitutional authority of the civilian power."
"It is of utmost importance that Egypt returns rapidly to a legitimate government and democratic structures responding to the democratic and socio-economic aspirations of the Egyptian people," she said.
Ashton's visit is the second by a high-level western official since the army's ouster of elected Morsi.
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns left Cairo early on Tuesday after concluding the first visit by a senior US official since the overthrow of Morsi.
-EU's Ashton meets Tamarod leaders-
Ashton met Wednesday with members of Tamarod – the movement that helped launch the protests culminated in president Mohamed Morsi's ouster – and members of Egypt's former government.
The EU's top diplomat met with Tamarod campaign founder Mahmoud Badr and Tamarod political communication officer Mohamed Abdel-Aziz.
She subsequently met with former prime minister Hisham Qandil, former international cooperation minister Amr Darrag and former local government minister Mohamed Ali Beshr.
-Reconciliation conditional on Morsi's return, MB tells EU's Ashton-
Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagi said his group had insisted, at a meeting with Ashton, on the reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi as a precondition for national dialogue and reconciliation.
"The meeting aimed to send three messages: to condemn the EU position, which failed to denounce the military coup; to highlight arbitrary measures (taken against MB leaders) by the coup leaders; and to reiterate our rejection of the coup and insist on the reinstatement of constitutional legitimacy," al-Beltagi said.
