Financing for the EU trust funds

In the course of the 2014-2020 MFF, the EU also launched ad-hoc instruments, such as the EU trust funds. The revision of the Financial Regulation in 2012 introduced the possibility of creating trust funds and the Financial Regulation applicable to the 11th EDF also offers this possibility. Consequently, the EU has created four trust funds (the Bêkou Trust Fund, the Madad Trust Fund, the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, and the Trust Fund for Peace in Colombia) as a response mainly to the migration and refugee crises. They operate outside the EU budget and are funded by a combination of EU budget funds and direct contributions by Member States and other donors (Figure 3). EUTFs are established with a constitutive act, signed by the Commission and the donors, and have specific governance arrangements. Each EUTF has a board, chaired by the Commission; the donors and the non-contributing Member States are represented on the board as observers. The board gives general orientations on the strategy, and an Operational Committee decides upon the use of the funds and approves the programmes. Trust funds, while managed outside the EU budget, nevertheless abide by the principles of sound financial management. They have a specific time span that can be extended by the Commission after consultation with the relevant committees. The EU budget contribution comes from various instruments, such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession, the Development Cooperation Instrument, humanitarian aid, the EDF and a contribution from the DG Migration and Home Affairs’ budget.