EU External Funding on Migration and Democracy: Synergy or Friction?

The event will be livestreamed here and on Facebook.

The EU has the ambition to act as a global actor. To this end, it financially supports a variety of activities outside its borders. The EU’s long-term budget for 2021-27 includes a new financial tool, the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). This instrument represents a merger of existing funding streams in areas such as development aid, good governance, democracy, rule of law and human rights, poverty eradication, migration, and environment and climate change. With regard to migration, the NDICI funds improvements in border management in countries outside the EU, policies to prevent irregular arrivals into the EU, and migration governance in general.

Is funding to prevent irregular migration and improve migration governance compatible with the support for economic development, democracy, human rights, and civil society? How can the EU ensure that its external funding does not support contradictory objectives?