The European Union is achieving initial results with its targeted partnerships for migration with African countries that began in June this year to reduce the causes of illegal immigration, and it may extend them to other countries in the future. It is, however, not yet prepared to negotiate such partnerships with countries where the political situation is extremely uncertain – Libya, for instance.
This was the essence of the message relayed on Tuesday 18 October by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini at an initial assessment of the targeted partnerships for migration. The partnerships had been announced on 7 June with her colleague Frans Timmermans.
The targeted partnerships for migration were brought about in November 2015 at a summit in Valletta, Malta, and currently cover Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Ethiopia, although Mogherini admitted on Tuesday that Ethiopia is experiencing a very worrying political situation.
They combine aid for economic development, tackling networks of people-smugglers and illegal immigration, the return of illegal immigrants (preferably on a voluntary basis) and possibilities for legal migration to the EU through such means as Erasmus exchanges rather than facilitating visas, which are seen as policies of the past, as a European source put it on Tuesday.
The Commission says the action to foster social and economic development in these countries, which is not conditional upon their efforts to prevent would-be illegal immigrants from setting off for Europe, is to be backed by the new foreign investment fund set up in the autumn, which the Commission wants to see generate €31 billion in time, or even double that if the member states and other external players kick in. In June, the Commission proposed providing conditional financial aid for countries of origin and transit to encourage them to keep people in their countries (see EUROPE 11567).
Four months after their launch, the targeted partnerships are expected to reach cruising speed in December, said Mogherini, who is due to brief the European summit on the issue. Thus far, 59 programmes have been adopted and 24 projects financed by the EU Trust Fund. She stated that there had been a speeding up of use of the fund, into which the Commission has decided to pay €500 million to ensure it has sufficient resources.
Mogherini said the first impact was being felt on the ground. The EU has appointed liaison officers in the various countries. In Mali and Senegal, the projects focus on the causes of migration and increasing the rate of returns. In Nigeria, there are talks about signing a readmission agreement and the causes of migration.
In Mali, six projects have been financed thus far, explains a report published on the same day. The report covers registers of the population, reinsertion of migrants and developing job opportunities in regions with large migration potential.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to Niger last week. It is the country where the most progress seems to have been made with the city of Agadez being seen as a targeted partnership laboratory. The country’s authorities have set up an agency to tackle people-trafficking and four ‘transit centres’ for migrants have already been set up (which should help regulate the flow of migrants crossing the country en route to the EU). The report says 1,500 places are available.
Niger has also taken stricter measures to control migrants travelling to Libya or Algeria and has launched awareness-raising campaigns among potential migrants. Several hundred illegal immigrants have been sent back to Agadez, and the report mentions a significant increase in the rate of voluntary returns. Rising from 1,721 in 2015 to 3,020 in the first eight months of 2016.
Mogherini will unveil these results at the European summit in December. Meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, EU28 heads of state will discuss progress in the partnerships, the idea for which had been mooted by Italy's Prime minister Matteo Renzi. The leaders are expected to discuss what Mogherini might need for negotiating with the five countries in order to make good progress by the spring of next year.
In the fairly short term, the EU will try to draw up collaboration with other countries, but not necessarily along the lines of the targeted partnerships. The EU-Turkey agreement of 18 March will not necessarily serve as a model for other countries either. The high representative pointed out that the EU already has a raft of other instruments for dealing with migration, such as the controversial Khartoum process comprising the EU and a number of countries in Africa (Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan). A fortnight ago, the EU signed a ‘joint way forward’ with Afghanistan to speed up the return of Afghans to their country of origin – a declaration that does not have the legal standing of a readmission agreement, but will have the same effect. The high representative insisted that the current political situation in some countries was more serious than in others and preventing negotiations of similar agreements with them – Libya, for example, which clearly cannot at the moment be a country with which one can develop a partnership, explained Mogherini. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)