Luxembourg, 25 September 2024
- The EU Trust Fund for Africa is flexible, but still not properly focused on priorities.
- The Monitoring system lacks accuracy, leading to overstatement of achievements.
- Risks of human rights violations are not thoroughly addressed.
The €5 billion EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) is not concentrating enough on priorities to tackle the root causes of instability, irregular migration, and displacement on the African continent, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors. Despite the auditors’ previous call in 2018 to focus EUTF support, the special funding to deal with migration continues to be spread too thinly on the ground as it finances too broad a range of actions in the areas of development, humanitarian aid, and security. In addition, the reported results lack accuracy, and human rights risks are not properly addressed.
Migration flows from Africa to the EU have fluctuated over the years, peaking in 2014-2016. In 2015, the European Commission created the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) to address various crises in three African regions: the Sahel and Lake Chad, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa. While internal displacements in Africa are common, the Sahel is also one of the transit routes most frequently used by migrants travelling towards Europe.
“Scattered support without a strategic focus does not ensure impact,” said Bettina Jakobsen, the ECA Member in charge of the audit. “Although the EUTF helped to keep migration high on the development and political agenda, we must reiterate our criticism as we found little change in the Fund’s focus, which remains too broad.”
The EUTF projects reported many results, and partially achieved their goals. All the projects examined by the auditors also responded to needs, albeit not the most urgent ones. Although the Fund’s rules allowed financing decisions to be taken quickly, too little account was taken of lessons learned, and the EUTF’s achievements were often overstated. Furthermore, the indicators used to monitor their results do not show whether they are sustainable, or whether they helped to address the root causes of instability, irregular migration, and displacement. As a result, the Commission is still unable to say which approaches are the most efficient and effective at reducing irregular migration and forced displacement in Africa.
In comparison to previous aid, the EUTF sought to focus its funding on evidence-based information. For that reason, it financed over a hundred research-based reports, which provided valuable information on the drivers of conflict, irregular migration, and displacement. However, the vast majority of these reports were published after almost all funding had already been committed, so they had little impact on the projects.
The Commission developed new approaches for collecting information on the root causes of migration and for identifying human rights risks in a volatile environment. Given the heightened risks in Libya, it introduced first-of-its-kind third-party monitoring of human rights risks, which can be a useful source of information. However, the Commission lacks formal procedures for reporting, recording, and following up on alleged human rights violations in relation to EU-funded projects. For example, there is no system to show that such allegations were properly examined and considered when deciding whether to continue or suspend EU funding. The auditors cannot therefore confirm that all allegations were followed up.
The EU’s financial watchdog makes several recommendations, and asksthe Commission to address them quickly in order to improve the Fund’s final stage that is coming to an end in 2025, and for future development funding with similar aims. In particular, the EU executive should increase evidence-based targeting of geographical areas and recipients, as well as identify human rights risks better and take mitigating action.
Background information
The EUTF aims to support all aspects of stability, and contribute to better migration management in Africa. The priorities include anti-trafficking measures, regional stabilisation efforts, and the protection of vulnerable migrants. The Fund has received more than €5 billion in contributions, and supported 27 African countries. Most contributions (€4.4 billion, or 88 % of the total of €5 billion) came from the European Development Fund and the EU budget. By December 2023, €4 508 million had been paid out. Following a decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures for irregular migration to Europe have steadily increased again. The auditors took a closer look at a few countries from the different regions covered: Ethiopia, Gambia, Mauritania, Libya and Tunisia.
Special report 17/2024, “The EU trust fund for Africa: despite new approaches, support remained unfocused”, is available on the ECA website. In 2018, in their first special report on the EUTF, the auditors found that the Fund was a flexible tool, but its design should have been more focused.
Text of the ECA report
Replies of the EU Commission
Links zum Thema
- Special report 17/2024: The EU trust fund for Africa – Despite new approaches, support remained unfocused
- Sonderbericht 17/2024: Der EU‑Treuhandfonds für Afrika – Trotz neuer Ansätze war die Unterstützung nach wie vor nicht zielgerichtet