The European Development budgets should not be used as leverage to impose a migration policy

"Reducing development budgets is not a structural solution to the migration crisis. On the contrary, the population is always the first victim, and that gives it another reason to flee. We cannot use European development budgets as leverage to impose a European migration policy in Africa", Alexander De Croo said.

Alexander De Croo pleaded on behalf of Belgium in favour of a more for more approach, which means to provide positive incentives for countries collaborating on a human and controlled migration. This works better than a punitive approach based solely on stopping aid. To create a positive incentive, we must inter alia appeal to the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, of which Belgium is the second donor.

New European Consensus

The European Ministers for International Development also addressed the European Consensus on Development, the new political roadmap of European development in preparation. Belgium welcomes the attention given to the new specific role of Official Development Assistance (ODA).

"We must be very careful about how we allocate public funds as they become increasingly limited. The Official Development Assistance must go where we make the biggest difference: in least developed countries that have less access to other funding sources such as private investment", Minister Alexander De Croo said.

In addition, Official Development Assistance must also act as an incentive by providing capital to launch new innovating forms of financing where the private sector will have to play a much bigger role. The ODA must be a leverage to trigger other funding streams.

For Belgium, the role of digital innovation in development must also take its place in the new European Consensus on Development.