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DRAFT REPORT (2025/2111(INI))

On reinforcing development cooperation to address irregular population movements and their root causes in partner countries

DEVE-PR-776883

Committee on Development · Rapporteur: Lukas Mandl

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This draft report addresses the link between development cooperation and irregular migration, calling for migration considerations to be integrated into development policies and for tailored partnerships with partner countries. It stresses addressing root causes like conflict and poverty, combatting smuggling and disinformation, and using development funding conditionality on return cooperation while protecting humanitarian aid. It also highlights the Global Gateway, vocational training, awareness campaigns, and a holistic approach combining development, border protection, asylum reform, and burden-sharing.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution that links development cooperation with migration management, advocating for integrating migration into development policies, using conditionality, and promoting a holistic approach.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission and Member States to systematically integrate migratory considerations into development policies and programmes.
  2. Stresses that development cooperation should prioritise conflict prevention and peacebuilding, including through economic empowerment, governance reforms, and human rights promotion.
  3. Highlights the importance of a Team Europe approach for coherent coordination of efforts to support partner countries in migration management.
  4. Calls for enhanced political dialogue with third countries, adopting tailor-made migration approaches on a country-by-country basis.
  5. Welcomes the Global Gateway as a key instrument for supporting sustainable economic development and job creation in partner countries.
  6. Emphasises the need to combat human smuggling and trafficking through strengthened development cooperation, law enforcement, and public awareness campaigns.
  7. Calls for integrating migration-related conditionality into development funding based on cooperation on return and readmission, while ensuring humanitarian assistance is never subject to such conditionality.
  8. Notes that public development funding and private investments are complementary, and EU investment guarantees encourage companies to invest.
  9. Calls for greater financial and political commitment to implement migration partnerships along migration routes under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.
  10. Invites the Commission to increase support for technical and vocational education and training in partner countries to address root causes of migration.
  11. Notes that migration and brain drain can hinder development and calls for strategies supporting the return and reintegration of skilled migrants.
  12. Calls for investment in awareness-raising campaigns to fight disinformation and inform about risks of irregular migration and EU labour migration rules.

Who is affected

  • The Commission and Member States are called on to integrate migration considerations into development policies and apply conditionality.
  • Partner countries of origin and transit are targeted for tailored migration approaches and development cooperation.
  • European companies are noted as playing a role in achieving EU development policy objectives through investments.
  • Humanitarian actors, including UN organisations and local actors, are welcomed for their work.

Figures and deadlines

  • Over 8.5 million asylum requests submitted in EU Member States since 2015.
  • 4.3 million people migrated to the EU from non-EU countries in 2023.

Legal basis: Article 208(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; Articles 3(5) and 21 of the Treaty on European Union