Debate: Implementation report on the EU Trust Funds and the Facility for Refugees in Turkey
Date: TUESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2021
Speaker: Olivér Várhelyi
Language: EN

The Commission considers the EU Trust Funds and Facility for Refugees in Turkey as a key financial and political instrument that has allowed us to respond to the unprecedented refugee and migration crisis around Europe in an effective manner.  We think they have delivered. They permitted faster decision-making processes for leveraging additional resources and for increased coordination and impact. But even more so, they brought the practical and tangible results. The Trust Fund for Africa was designed to respond to the diverse risks of instability, irregular migration and forced displacement. Thanks to the Trust Fund for Africa, irregular arrivals to Italy and Malta have decreased from over 180 000 at the peak of this crisis to 35 600 in 2020 and around 44 000 so far this year.  We have saved many lives. The Trust Fund for Syria has mobilised over EUR 2.3 billion since 2014. On top of directly reaching 7.8 million beneficiaries, it will have a sustainable legacy in helping refugees and local hosting communities. It has been key to implement EU pledges, and it has allowed the EU to respond rapidly and flexibly to the challenges of COVID-19 and the Beirut port explosion.  The facility for refugees in Turkey is unprecedented in scale and reach. It has made a major contribution to contain the flows of irregular migration, provide basic needs to refugees and enable a faster government scale-up of health and education services.  These are just some examples, and I’m glad to see that the report shares the overall positive assessment of all these tools and recognises their added value.  Let me also address two observations that the report raises.  First, we take transparency as well as monitoring and evaluation very seriously. Since the inception of the trust fund and the facility, the Commission has kept the relevant committees of the European Parliament well informed about progress achieved in the implementation of these programmes. We have done this through annual reports and certified annual accounts, as well as through a monthly financial report on the four trust funds, produced by DG Budget.  The European Parliament was also invited as observer in the strategic boards of the trust funds and has been regularly kept informed about programmes adopted by the operational committees.  The second that I would like to touch upon, in the respect of human rights, is a clear objective of our trust fund throughout different regions and countries, which the Commission takes very seriously. We are in close coordination with the implementing partners of our programmes and external experts that are conducting regular project monitoring missions to make sure that human rights are respected in the implementation of these programmes.  To give you an example, the European Commission has put in place a rather unique third party monitoring of operations in Libya. It is paramount that we make the results of the trust funds and the facility sustainable. While the measures taken by the EU and Member States have brought down the overall number of illegal border crossings in recent years, developments on some routes give rise to concern and require vigilance and urgent action. In order to prevent the loss of life and to reduce pressure on European borders, the EU needs to keep taking solid actions for priority countries and routes in close coordination with Member States and our partner countries. In this regard it will be essential also to secure adequate and predictable funding, as has been the case in the past six years.  The Commission remains fully committed to addressing these challenges, and I hope to count on the continued support and cooperation of the European Parliament. I look forward to discussing all these issues with you.