Source: European Parliament
18.10.2024
Question for written answer E-002169/2024
to the Commission
Rule 144
Fabrice Leggeri (PfE), Thierry Mariani (PfE), Julie Rechagneux (PfE), Philippe Olivier (PfE), Valérie Deloge (PfE), Malika Sorel (PfE), Julien Sanchez (PfE), Julien Leonardelli (PfE), Marie-Luce Brasier-Clain (PfE), Marie Dauchy (PfE), Anne-Sophie Frigout (PfE), Gilles Pennelle (PfE)
The European Court of Auditors is sounding the alarm over the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa[1], a mechanism intended to tackle the causes of illegal migration and facilitate the return of migrants. Partly financed from our taxes, the Fund is turning out to be a EUR 5 billion sinkhole.
The Commission has clearly not taken into account the recommendations already made by the Court in 2018.
The Fund is apparently even being used by people to facilitate their illegal migration using traffickers, or even being misappropriated by the traffickers themselves, who are the very people the programme was intended to tackle.
Out of a sample of 115 investments examined, 33 were no longer operational and a further 66 risked becoming unsustainable.
There are almost no controls. These are just a few examples:
In sub-Saharan Africa, blenders are distributed to cookery schools with no electricity.
In Gambia, one beneficiary receives the same aid twice for poultry projects that do not even exist.
Can the Commission:
- 1.Explain why it continued to pay into the Fund without taking into account the recommendations made by the Court of Auditors in 2018?
- 2.Say whether France has contributed to the Fund, and if so, how much?
- 3.Guarantee that the Fund has not financed migrant traffickers?
Submitted: 18.10.2024
- [1] https://www.eca.europa.eu/ECAPublications/SR-2024-17/SR-2024-17_EN.pdf