European Union Trust Funds

Since 2013, the EU’s financing rules have permitted the European Commission to set up and administer EU Trust Funds (EUTFs).

These funds are set up to tackle emergency, post-emergency or thematic actions (for example, migration).

Typically, EUTFs are funded from several sources:

• EU sources (for example, programmes falling within the EU budget and the European Development Fund);
• EU Member States;
• external donors (among others, Norway and Switzerland).

EUTFs have certain advantages over more conventional EU multiannual programmes:

• faster decision-making;
• the possibility to make use of additional resources from Member States, other countries or entities;
• increased coordination and impact due to the pooling of resources.

There are currently 4 EUTFs:

• the Bêkou EU Trust Fund focusing on stabilising and reconstructing the Central African Republic, set up in 2014;
• the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian crisis, set up in 2014;
• the EUTF for Africa, set up following the Valletta Summit on migration, in 2015;
• the EUTF for peace-building in Colombia, set up after the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC in December 2016.

SEE ALSO

• Bêkou Trust Fund (European Commission)
• European Trust Fund for Colombia (European Commission)
• EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (European Commission)
• EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian crisis (European Commission).