The Working Paper written by Dr Laura Davis examines EU external funding for asylum and migration by analysing asylum and migration-related spending in the previous MFF (2014-2019). It is an attempt to understand how much money the EU spent on migration and asylum-related activities outside the EU between 2014 and 2019, or how it was spent.
The working paper was commissioned by ECRE to support a better understanding of past EU spending on asylum and migration outside Europe. This will be key to effective migration programming in the next EU budget, which dedicated significant resources to this topic. 10% of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), thus EUR 7.946 million should be spent on measures related to migration and forced displacement.
The activities covered in the working paper range from strengthening asylum systems, through providing support for and promoting the rights of asylum-seekers, refugees, migrants and displaced people, to migration restriction and border management. A main objective of the working paper is to gather preliminary information on which of these particular activities are supported by different funding instrument, as well as to identify gaps and areas for future research that could eventually lead to 1) gathering more accurate data on spending and 2) assessment of the effectiveness of spending on asylum and migration by/through the EU.
The working paper finds that accessing useable data was a significant challenge. This increased visibility of migration in EU policy does not contribute to transparency. There is no clarity on how much money is spent externally by the EU on migration-related activities that is accessible to a more-than-averagely interested EU citizen or third-country governments.
For further information:
- ECRE Policy Note, Migration Control Conditionality: A Flawed Model, January 2020
- ECRE Policy Note, Outspending on Migration, May 2019
Photo: ECRE
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin. You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.