At a meeting of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Thursday 8 March, the head of the EU delegation to the Republic of Niger, Raul Mateus Paula, underlined the important cooperation that exists between the EU and Niger, especially in terms of security and the fight against migration.
"Traditionally, the EU is present in Niger for reasons of cooperation. But for several years now – due to terrorism, the security situation and migration pressure – the position has changed", he said. In Paula's view, Niger has "clearly become an extremely important partner for the EU, due to its geostrategic position. It plays a role because of the issues of security, of terrorism (...) We are lucky to have a reliable partner", he said.
The fight against illegal migration is an important axis of collaboration between the EU and Niger. Paula stated that while 70,000 migrants passed through Niger every month to reach Libya, then the EU, in 2016, there are now no more than 3 to 4,000. He also announced that a summit would be held in Niamey on 16 March, involving the home affairs ministers from France, Germany, Italy, the G5 countries, the countries from which migrant flows originate (Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea and Libya) and European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.
The EU and Niger also cooperate on security. The EU has the EUCAP mission in place, which aims to train civil forces to fight terrorism, and the mission has now been expanded to involve the management of migration and borders. French and Spanish police forces are helping Niger's authorities dismantle trafficking networks, in investigation teams. "This shows that we have a very strong partnership. The key to our success is political resolve, which unfortunately is not the case in other countries. There is real and strong cooperation between Niger, the EU and the member states", Paula stated. He also said that an assessment was underway with the Italian military to provide training to army units. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)