EU ‘doesn’t know how migrant aid is being spent’
Cameron unveils plans for expanded EU force to drive back people smugglers before they reach high seas
EU aid to deter and deport migrants is so poorly managed that Jean-Claude Juncker’s officials are unable to say how much has been spent, a scathing report has found.
Projects worth £1 billion in the Balkans and north Africa achieved next to nothing because of chaotic mismanagement by Eurocrats who have “no clear strategy” and “rarely” monitor results.
It came as David Cameron and his counterparts began a 24-hour marathon of haggling over a €6 billion (£4.7 billion) aid-for-deportation deal with Turkey at a Brussels summit. There are grave doubts about its legality and fears it will simply drive migrants into dangerous routes off the Mediterranean.
Mr Cameron last night announced plans to send British warships close to the Libyan coast to intercept smugglers’ boats.
Ankara wants to take “ownership” of the €6 billion and spend it on refugees through its local authorities.
One diplomat said there was grave concern over whether “the money is flowing to reputable, serious people.”
The European Commission dismissed the report as “outdated”. A spokesman said it was “not relevant to the current problem”.
BRITISH warships could be fighting back people smugglers within sight of the Libyan coast within months, under plans presented by David Cameron.
The Prime Minister told his counterparts at a summit in Brussels yesterday that he wanted to expand a current European Union naval force operating in the central Mediterranean to stop hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing from Libya to Europe.
Angela Merkel’s €6 billion aid-for-deportations deal was in serious jeopardy as leaders warned that the “blackmail” risked violating international law. Talks were on course to grind through the night before a Turkish breakfast this morning with Ahmet Davutoglu, the country’s wily prime minister.
The redefined mission would involve more British ships and other assets such as helicopters being deployed in the “territorial and internal” waters within “several kilometres off the Libyan coastline”, according to a UK Government source.
That would lead to the British ships “taking measures to dispose of vessels or to make them inoperable within that remit, within the coastline of Libya rather than on the high seas”, working closely with the Libyan coastguard.
“The Prime Minister would like to see the vessels being destroyed as close to where they set off from as possible to send out that very clear deterrent message,” the government source said.
Mr Cameron is said to be worried about a return of mass migration on Libya to Italy – a route where more than 6,000 people have drowned since 2014, a 16 times more deadly than that to Greece.
HMS Enterprise, a Royal Navy sur- vey vessel, is part of an EU naval mission known as Operation Sophia that has so far detained 90 vessels and arrested 53 people smugglers.
Britain wants to take advantage of the new Libyan government and obtain an agreement to return the migrants to Libya, rather than take them to Italy.
Under the highly complex “dirty deal”, Turkey will receive aid including £500 million from Britain, as well as visa-free travel from June and progress on EU membership talks. Migrants in Greece will be deported within hours of landing back to Turkey, while 72,000 Syrians will be sent from Turkish camps to new homes in the EU.
Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian leader, said the plan “will be very difficult to implement and it is on the edge of international law”.
Antonio Costa, the Portuguese prime minister, said: “We cannot put faith in an agreement that seeks to deliver more than it can. Because otherwise, when in a few months the Balkan route is closed and a route through the Black Sea or through Lampedusa opens up, then don’t stand here asking ‘Why did it not work?’.”
Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourg prime minister, said: “You can’t just put aside the Geneva convention.”
Britain will not take part in the Syrian scheme, and Mr Cameron is understood to be increasingly frustrated with Jean-Claude Juncker’s “grandiose” migrant schemes. An EU plan to rehome 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy around the EU by quota has moved 937 people since September.
“He thought that was basically unimplementable and a bloody stupid policy that provided perverse incentives and was never going to work,” said a source. “It is demonstrated now that it isn’t working.”
Abdel al-Sisi, the Egyptian president, warned of a new wave of refugees “two or three times bigger than it is now” if the Middle East is further destabilised.
‘The Prime Minister would like to see the boats being destroyed to send out a very clear deterrent message’
Mr Cameron was expected to lend his full weight to the government of Cyprus, the former British colony, during the talks.
Turkey refuses to recognise the Cyprus government, resulting in Cyprus refusing to countenance Turkish membership of the EU. Mr Cameron is urging Nikos Anastasiades, the Cypriot president, to use the talks to extract concessions out of Ankara.
“Obviously as a guarantor power we take a very, very close interest,” said a source. “There are massive issues here for Cyprus, existential issues for Anastasiades. We are extremely supportive to the Cypriots getting something out of this deal.”
As talks began, Donald Tusk, the president of European Council, urged leaders to “keep our cool”.
“I am cautiously optimistic, but frankly speaking more cautious than optimistic,” he said.