Valletta, 12/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EU trust fund to counter the deep-rooted causes of irregular migration in Africa was officially launched on Thursday 12 November, on the sidelines of the migration summit in Malta. The agreement establishing this fund was signed by representatives of the EU member states, of Norway and of Switzerland and by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (see EUROPE 11414).
This emergency trust fund, which is made up of €1.8 billion from EU funds, is open to the contribution of member states. “For the trust fund for Africa and our response to be credible, I want to see more member states bringing their contribution to align with the €1.8 billion envelope released by the EU”, Juncker stated. The contributions from the member states, with the help of two non-EU states (Norway and Switzerland), are not currently up to this level, however - reaching only €78.2 million. While the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium are the biggest donors, with €15 million from the Netherlands and €10 million each from Italy and Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia and Greece have not so far announced any contribution.
The European Commission describes this fund as an “innovative way for the EU to strengthen its collective response to the current challenges on the ground, and it constitutes an additional tool to the development cooperation that the Commission is already bringing to the region to help the most fragile and most vulnerable African countries”. According to Senegal's President Macky Sall, the trust fund is intended to finance the return of African migrants, but also activities creating income and jobs in Africa. The Commission believes that this fund is a significant tool for good implementation of the action plan adopted at the Valletta summit (see other article). During the press conference at the end of the summit, Sall said that while the fund was an “important step” in the dialogue between the EU and Africa, he would like this to be supplemented.
The first meeting of the trust fund board, chaired by the Commission, was held later the same day in order to enable a swift launch of the activities it will finance. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)