At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Council of Europe held on Thursday 5 November 2015 in Paris, Luxembourg confirmed its commitment to participate in the newly-established Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF) of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).
Luxembourg's Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna, announced that the Grand Duchy will be contributing €500,000 to the Fund. This will help provide support to the initiative, which aims to improve the living conditions of refugees and migrants by assisting the countries of entry and transit in the development, modernisation and operation of reception and transit centres.
The establishemnt of the MRF was unanimously approved by CEB member states in October 2015 following a proposal by CEB Governor Rolf Wenzel, with whom Minister Gramegna had previously met to discuss the migrant and refugee crisis.
The CEB endowed the MRF with €5 million and invited donors to contribute their funds with a view to reaching between €20-€25 million. The Bank has so far approved €4.5 million in emergency assistance to Macedonia and Serbia to help them cope with the recent influx.
In the medium term, the Bank will examine the possibility of expanding the scope of its support to refugees and migrants beyond current emergency measures. In particular, it will finance integration projects for these populations in their host countries.
Luxembourg yesterday joined Cyprus, Germany, the Slovak Republic and the European Investment Bank in offering a financial conribution to the MRF. Governor Wenzel thanked the Grand Duchy for its contribution and expressed his expectation that other donors would soon follow suit.
The contribution followed the €100,000 in aid provided by Luxembourg last week to refugee relief actions in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia.
Photo by Ministry of Finance (L-R: CEB Governor, Rolf Wenzel; Luxembourg Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna)
