European aid for cleaner processing

The Egyptian government is to receive €521,990 from the European Union to help improve the environmental performance of its tanneries. The money, from the EU's LIFE Third Countries programme, will be paid to the Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Technological Development. It will mainly be spent on creating and operating two pilot plants to demonstrate good practice to tanners. One will be a tanning unit and the other a linked wastewater treatment facility. According to a European Commission note: 'The project's main objective is to show clean technologies to Egyptian tanneries.' It will also fund establishing an environmental laboratory for the sector and training its technical staff in related analyses.