The European Commission is reportedly planning to push for changes to EU foreign aid policy, requiring countries in Africa to prevent illegal migration to Europe in order to receive funding.
In the wake of conservatives and populists making significant gains in last year’s European Parliament elections, Brussels appears set to shift towards anti-illegal migration policies favoured by the likes of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
According to an internal document outlining proposals for the upcoming seven-year budget seen by POLITICO, the EU’s executive branch will reportedly push to tie foreign aid with concessions from African nations on preventing illegal immigrants from heading to Europe.
“It shall combine all appropriate tools and the necessary leverage through a flexible incitative approach with, as appropriate within this context, possible changes in [the] allocation of funding related to migration,” the Commission document is quoted as saying.
Traditionally, the EU has been hesitant to tie foreign policy demands to aid, as is often done by other powers such as the United States.
However, the approach of specifically linking border protections with aid money was pioneered in 2023 by Italian Prime Minister Meloni, who played a key role in negotiating similar deals between the EU and North African nations such as Tunisia and Libya.
Rome has also brokered bilateral economic development deals throughout Northern Africa to reduce illegal immigration to its shores. This has borne some fruit for the Meloni government, with illegal immigration to Italy having been cut by 56 per cent so far this year compared to 2023.
Yet, for the EU parliament to adopt such an approach on a broader scale, it would likely need the approval of leftist pro-open borders groups, including the Greens and the Socialists, who have already become increasingly critical of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission over its plans to cut some environmental regulations to help stimulate the EU’s aneamic economic growth.
There has also been pushback against Meloni-style plans for Africa amid allegations that the Tunisian national guard had engaged in widespread abuse of migrants, including hundreds of rapes and violence towards children, while still allegedly colluding with people smuggling gangs operating in the country to facilitate Medditeranean crossings in exchange for cash.
Meanwhile, the other pillar of Meloni’s strategy, sending illegals to third-party countries like Albania to have their asylum claims processed offshore rather than allowing them to remain in Europe during the interim, remains in doubt.
Although the plan has won the support of multiple other EU nations, it is currently mired in legal challenges both in Rome and at the EU-level, with an appeal currently underway at the European Court of Justice over whether individual member states have the right to determine which countries are considered “safe” for return of migrants.
Meloni has also faced recent criticism after her government approved a scheme this month to allow 500,000 work visas between 2026 and 2028, taking the total number of visas permitted under her watch to nearly one million, leading some to question her campaign pledge of reducing migration. While the vast majority of the visas will be for seasonal work, such as on Italian farms, visa overstays are often a key driver of illegal immigration, with many simply migrants in Italy disappearing into the countryside and often agreeing to effective modern slavery conditions after their visa runs out.
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