Under plans drawn up by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, member states countries would match the €1.8 billion allocated from central EU coffers for an ‘African trust fund’, to be spent on education, jobs and services across the continent.
But a whip-round of national leaders last night saw just €78 million raised, less than five per cent of the target.
“This is the usual behaviour,” said an exasperated Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament. “For the saving of banks, in one night we have hundreds of millions of euros. For saving lives, we are relatively reluctant.”
Mr Juncker said the fund would not be “credible” unless more cash was raised. Britain gave €3 million, alongside an £200 million extra in direct aid to the continent, a gap that hints at British scepticism towards the plan.
Macky Sall, the president of Senegal who spoke on behalf of the continent to journalists, said it was not enough. “We would like to see this fund more generously financed.”
A draft agreement discussed ahead of the Valletta summit had contained extensive plans for the “return” of migrants, including the introduction of a ‘laissez passer’, an EU travel document that would allow the removal of migrants who had lost or destroyed their passports in the hope of pretending to be from an unsafe country. But it was dropped after African states said it had no grounding in international law.
The final text stressed that the fight against illegal migration must be “in line with existing agreements”, suggesting no new deals.
So far, the EU has agreed only one readmission deal with an African country, Cape Verde. There have been talks with Morocco since 2003, but no deal, and many sub-Saharan African countries are reluctant to take back their people.
The finished agreement said that leaders “agree to give preference to voluntary return”, suggesting that enforced deportation of those who have risked their lives to reach Europe is a remote prospect.
The plan contains several more minor measures. Units of African immigration officials are to travel to Europe to identify the nationalities of refugees, under plans to combat the problem of economic migrants disguising their true origins in the hope of securing asylum.
The plan also includes doubling the number of scholarships given to African students from European institutions, and spending more on development projects in the belief that poverty is a driver of migration.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, insisted it was a “long list of very concrete actions”.
He warned that the Schengen passport-free travel zone is on the brink of collapse due to the influx, with a series of states erected borders.
“Saving Schengen is a race against time and we are determined to win that race. Without effective control on our external borders, the Schengen rules will not survive,” he said.
Mr Sall said no new deportation agreements are needed, and accused European leaders of “putting too much emphasis on readmission, perhaps because of public opinion”. He used a closing press conference to attack Western multinationals for avoiding taxation in the continent, leaving governments dependent on handouts.
"I think there is also a fundamental, philosophical question: you cannot insist on Africans being readmitted to their countries of origin when you are welcoming Syrians and others. The numbers of Africans migrating towards Europe are not as great as people say."
The EU's attempts to alleviate the crisis by distributing migrants around the bloc has produced slender results. So far it has moved fewer than 200 people, out of Mr Juncker's target of 160,000.
In light of the poor response to the African fundraising drive, Mr Juncker will risk another bruising clash with member states already seething over the quota scheme with a new plan to raise some €2.5 billion to give to Turkey, in exchange for it agreeing to halt the flow of migrants over its border. A summit will take place at the end of November.
The funds will be raised under a new law, in accordance to the relative size of each state’s economy. The British government supports the plans, and is willing to pay its share which will come to £275 million.
They cross from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands; from Morocco to southern Spain; from Libya to Malta and the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa; and from Turkey to the islands of Greece.
