2019-12-09
BRUSSELS - The Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) is the European Union's largest funding mechanism for development, stability and migration in Africa. Over the past three years it has spent 4,6 billion euro in 26 African countries. This money, however, has not been spent following the proper public procurement laws of the EU.
This may sound obscure but is, in fact, emblematic of the way Europe spends migration funds in Africa: through processes the European Council of Auditors has called "opaque", and with great haste.
The reason the EU is able to bypass her own public procurement laws is that there is a hidden clause in the legal documents of the EUTF, in which the EU declares a state of crisis in all countries covered by the EUTF for the duration of the fund. No grounds are adduced to substantiate that there is a crisis in and throughout all of these 26 African countries. And the general nature of the exception makes the provision evidently overbroad.
As a consequence, it is practically impossible for African organisations to get projects funded by the EUTF. At least 75 per cent of the Fund is spent through EU- or UN-organisations. Experts have called this the formation of a ‘migration cartel.’
© De Correspondent
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- Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes - The Correspondent, 9 December 2019
- A breakdown of Europe’s €1.5bn migration spending in Nigeria - The Correspondent, 9 December 2019
- Niemand weet, niemand weet... hoe Europa zijn migratiemiljarden besteedt ? - De Correspondent, 9 December 2019
- Grensbewaking en migranten terugvliegen. Zo besteedt Europa 1,5 miljard euro aan migratie in Nigeria - De Correspondent, 9 December 2019
- How the EU created a crisis in Africa – and started a migration cartel - The Correspondent, 11 December 2019
- De EU heeft in stilte een crisis uitgeroepen in 26 Afrikaanse landen. En omzeilt zo de eigen aanbestedingsregels - De Correspondent, 11 December 2019
- Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes - ICIR, 18 December 2019
- Deze mythe over migratie wil iedereen dolgraag geloven - De Correspondent, 28 January 2020
- Europe’s great migration illusion: money that creates more problems than it solves - The Correspondent, 28 January 2020
COVERAGE BY OTHER PARTIES
- Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes - MMC West Africa Quarter 4 2019, Mixed Migration Centre
OTHER IMPACT
- Tracking the EU’s migration millions in Africa, presentation by the journalists at the European Parliament, 29 January 2020
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