Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2018

Since its creation at the Valletta Summit in November 2015, the “Emergency Trust Fund for Stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa” has attempted to respond to the EU’s political priorities and interests in a delicate, fragile context of instability, irregular migration and forced displacement. In accordance with political priorities, the Fund is intended for a whole group of African countries located on the main migration routes. The EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland have joined together to make financial contributions on a voluntary basis (however, an initial contribution of at least 3 million euros had to be made to have a voting right on the board of administration and steering committees). In 2016, Luxembourg made a contribution of 3,1 million euros to this trust fund and in 2019 made an additional contribution of 1 million. In concert with the Directorate of Immigration, the MFEA’s Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs has been monitoring the decisions of the Valletta Summit and represented Luxembourg at the meetings of the Strategic Board and the Operational Committee of the trust fund. The Fund had adopted by December 2018 actions amounting to a total of 3,59 billion euros. 

The trust fund has its own monitoring instruments and makes information derived from them available on its website⁵. A “mid-term” external evaluation is underway and the report will be published during 2019. The EU Court of Auditors carried out an audit of the instrument in 2018 and arrived at the conclusion that it was functioning well but its procedures did not really reflect the emergency nature of the fund, that the reasons for choosing each action were not always transparent, and that it was not yet possible to see what results had actually been achieved by the instrument.

The Directorate also took part in the steering committees of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey held in Brussels, to which Luxembourg contributed 4,3 million euros. The Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRIT) was created in 2016 as a response to the influx of Syrian refugees into Turkey along with Turkey’s commitment to keep these refugees on its territory⁶. The FRIT was designed to ensure that the needs of refugees and host communities are addressed in a full and coordinated manner. The FRIT focuses on humanitarian assistance, education, migration management, health, municipal infrastructure, socio-economic support for refugees and host populations and the integration of refugees into Turkish society. Member States’ financial participation is mandatory and is based on a distribution weighting key. Based on a Decision of the European Commission of 14 March 2018, the European Council of 18 June 2018 decided to extend the FRIT to a second phase covering the 2019 to 2023 period and to finance it on the one hand via the EU budget and on the other hand through new mandatory contributions by the Member States. The amount of the Member States’ contributions has been calculated on the basis of the respective share of each State in gross national income (GNI). The amount requested of Luxembourg comes to 2 506 383 euros and will be paid in 2019.