The EU must lead the dance at UN Summit for Refugees & Migrants and address the local level!

19 September 2016

The United Nations Summit for Migrants and Refugees, scheduled for today (19 September) in New York, cannot be just another Summit. The world leaders must come up with an action agenda that addresses the complexity of today’s world and systematically includes a local perspective. 

Addressing the root causes of migration will again be the main subject of the high-level round table, but no discussion is so far explicitly targeting the local dimension of migration and forced displacement.

 

The EU has a particular responsibility. Internally, it has yet to fully deliver on its pledges regarding the relocation and resettlement of refugees across its territory. Externally, its recently launched Migration Partnership Framework with third countries and the accompanying External Investment Plan also raise a few questions concerning their suitability and feasibility [see our video].
Against this background, PLATFORMA is launching a position paper on migration where it calls on the EU to:

  • Remove the link between development aid and partner countries’ performance in migration and reject the diversion of development funds to security-related projects.
  • Give local governments in partner countries a voice in the design, implementation and evaluation of the “compacts” between the European Union and their national governments – particularly in three core policy fields for local governments such as:
o Local Economic Development
o Resilience to crises
o Administrative reform and decentralisation
  • Promote city to city cooperation between Europe and partner countries as a key instrument for the implementation of the new approach.
Only a vision that truly incorporates local and regional governments as key actors will contribute to better managing migration flows and ensuring migrants’ welfare in the hosting communities. The UN and the EU cannot let pass this opportunity to make this vision come true.
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