"Under the leadership of the Estonian presidency [of the Council of the EU], contributions to the EU-Africa trust fund and especially its window for Northern Africa have grown, and the €110 million that is vital for moving forward with projects next year has been found," spokespeople for the Estonian representation to the EU told BNS on Friday. "Member states have contributed over €150 million."

Estonia itself contributed €1.45 million to the fund.

BNS learned that during Estonia's EU Council presidency, Estonian diplomats worked intensively to have each member state contribute to the fund to the best of their ability.

"Flexible financing is one of the keys to solving the problem of migration, which must be taken into account in preparing the next EU financial framework," the spokespeople noted.

Establishing the fund and strengthening the border guard services of African countries with its aid is one component in the external dimension of the migration policy of the EU, which aims to prevent new waves of migration to Europe.

The Trust Fund for Africa is worth a total of over €3.2 billion euros, almost €3 billion of which comes from the European Development Fund and other EU financial instruments, and the rest of which has been contributed by EU member states and other partners.