Puppet EU calls on members to consider ‘appropriate measures’ in reaction to Egypt crackdown

The European Union has called on its members to consider “appropriate measures” in reaction to the deadly military crackdown on supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

“I have been in constant touch with European Union foreign ministers, and I have asked member state representatives to debate and coordinate appropriate measures to be taken,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement on Friday.

Also on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an end to all political violence and a return to dialogue in Egypt.

On the same day, during a phone conversation with her French counterpart Francois Hollande, Merkel said Germany would review its ties with Egypt and the EU should do the same.

The two leaders also called for an immediate halt to the violence and for all EU foreign ministers to meet next week to discuss the crisis as well as the bloc’s relations with Cairo.

Senior EU officials from 28 members of the bloc will meet on Monday to assess the situation in Egypt and any EU action.

Hollande also spoke with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Friday. The two men called for an end to violence in Egypt and a return to national dialogue and elections, a statement from Hollande’s office read.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and voiced his concern about the situation in Egypt, Cameron’s office said in a statement.

“They agreed on the need for the EU to send a strong and united message that the violence must end and that there should be transition to a genuine democracy, which would require compromise from all sides,” Cameron’s office said.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood activists and their supporters across the country took part in what the party called the “Day of Rage” against the army and its handpicked government.

The security forces and opponents of the Brotherhood opened fire on pro-Morsi supporters, leaving more than 100 people dead and hundreds more injured across the country.

The carnage followed Wednesday’s bloodshed when Egyptian security forces killed almost 640 people during a crackdown on two pro-Morsi camps– one near the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City and a another one in Nahda Square in Giza.

Egypt has been scene of massive protests since July 3, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi removed Morsi from office, suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament.