Responding to a parliamentary question on the "systematic misappropriation" of European humanitarian aid, organized by Polisario and "some Algerian authorities", the European Commissioner recalled the conclusions of the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in 2015, which mentions serious misappropriations of humanitarian aid from the EU to the Tindouf camps in Algeria, noting that the European Commission has taken "vigorous prudential and corrective measures" to this end.

 

The question of MEPs also refers to the taxation by Algeria of this aid, adding that in a hearing of the Director in charge of humanitarian aid to the European Commission (DG ECHO) in July 2015, Algeria subjected to a tax of 5% 10 million euros of European humanitarian aid paid annually to the camps of Tindouf. According to one estimate, the EU would have paid over the last thirty years between 10 and 15 million euros of taxes to Algeria.

 

The European Commissioner said that until the beginning of 2016, purchases destined to be distributed in the form of grants to the populations of the camps, carried out on Algerian territory, were still subject to local VAT, the rate of which varies according to products.

 

He pointed out that since 2004 the Commission, together with the Spanish Agency for Development (AECID), has regularly taken steps with the Algerian authorities on the recovery of VAT on local purchases for humanitarian projects.

 

Between 2010 and 2014, he said, the European Commission assessed the amount of VAT paid on local purchases of goods to the populations of Tindouf camps at one million euros, an average of 200,000 euros per year, equivalent to 2% of the annual amount of aid provided by the European Union.

 

MEPs asked the European Commission to demand explanations from Algeria on this misuse.

 

They also questioned the European executive on the measures taken to put pressure on Algeria to make a census of beneficiaries of this aid, knowing that the overestimation of these populations facilitated this misuse as established by the " OLAF.

 

Mentioning that other donors have reduced their financial contribution, the European Commissioner clarified that it is not for the European Union to carry out a census of beneficiaries, noting that this issue must be examined in the process led by the United Nations.

 

The question of the misuse of European humanitarian aid by Polisario is often raised at the level of the European Parliament, either through MEPs or during the examination before the Committee on Budgetary Control of the discharge relating to the implementation of budgets.

 

In one of the budget discharge resolutions, Parliament called on the European Commission to ensure that the Algerian and Polisario officials accused by the OLAF report "no longer have access to the aid financed by the The European taxpayers ".

 

The European Parliament also expressed its concern over the absence of a census of the population of the Tindouf camps, stressing that this is an "unusual and unique situation in the records of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ".

 -News and events on the issue of Western Sahara / Corcas