ENTRY POINT 3: SHAPE MIGRATION COOPERATION PROACTIVELY Shift the agenda from containment to mobility and devel­opment by prioritising: • migration pathways and skills partnerships • employment and education • engagement and remittances • return and reintegration frameworks Who to engage: EU interior ministries and migration authorities; the International Organization for Migration; other development agencies working on migration. When to engage: During the negotiations and after their conclusion, as implementation of the new instruments will unfold over the full 2028-34 period. Action: Promote legal migration pathways, skills part­nerships and youth employment. Advocate rights-based migration cooperation. Resist narrow conditionality tied only to border control and returns. Highlight risks of excessive flexibility and migration conditionality. CONCLUSION The 2028-34 MFF is an EU internal process with implications for its partners. This negotiation round marks a geo­political turn in EU external action, with implications for Africa’s access to finance, policy space and partnership model. For Africa, this means more politically driven funding and a shift in the terms of engagement. A coordinated and strategic African response, which is focused on predictability, partnership ownership and mutual economic benefit, can help ensure the EU-Africa relationship remains anchored in long-term development, and is not reduced to short-term geopolitical interests. THE PROGRESSIVE MIGRATION GROUP(PMG) António Vitorino(Chairman) Tasnim Abderrahim Giramchew Adugna Lukmon Akintola Steffen Angenendt Amanda Bisong Sara Bojarczuk Felix Braunsdorf Jean-Louis de Brouwer Roberto Forin Mamadou Goita Ibrahim Kasso Hussein Anna Knoll Ottilia Maunganidze Awil Mohamoud Felicity Okoth Ferruccio Pastore Fatma Raach Paddy Siyanga Knudsen Anna Terron Cusi PROJECT COORDINATORS: Tobias Beylat, Hedwig Giusto, Bruck Negash Teame, Alice Nicaise, Susanne Stollreiter The views expressed in this document do not necessarily represent the views of the respective organisations to which the members of the Progressive Migration Group are affiliated.