European Court of Auditors: aid to combat irregular migration must be more targeted
The five billion euros from the European Union’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa fail to prioritize the fight against irregular migration, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) considered today, recommending better selection of future beneficiaries.
In a report published today on the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EFEU for Africa), the second since 2018, auditors maintain that it “continued to be insufficiently targeted”, recommending that the European Commission should “increase the selection of geographic areas and of beneficiaries based on concrete data”.
The ECA also recommends that EUTF documents for Africa should be included in a central repository, with a view to supporting future actions and improving the collection of information on projects, so that it is more accurate.
The auditors also state that human rights risks must be assessed and minimized.
The audit focused on countries in the different regions covered by the FFEU: Ethiopia, Gambia, Mauritania, Libya and Tunisia.
In October 2015, the European Commission created the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for stability and to combat the root causes of irregular migration and the phenomenon of displaced people in Africa.
This fund focuses on the crisis situation in three African regions – the Sahel and Lake Chad, the Horn of Africa and North Africa – and aims to promote stability and better management of migration flows and responds to root causes of destabilization, forced displacement and irregular migration in 27 countries. By the end of 2023, the EUTF for Africa had paid €4,508 million of its €5 billion allocation.
The EUTF for Africa is in force until 2025, but the contracting of funds for operations ended in December 2021, so the ECA hopes that the recommendations made will contribute to the new Neighborhood, Development Cooperation and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe .
