Parliament approves €401.3 million more for migration

Met dank overgenomen van Europees Parlement (EP) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 14 oktober 2015, 19:41.

An extra €401.3 million in EU funding to manage the refugee crisis was endorsed by Parliament on Wednesday. The funds, proposed by the EU Commission and approved by Parliament’s Budgets Committee on Monday, would go to the EU countries hardest hit by the refugee inflow, to non-EU countries hosting most Syrian refugees and to three EU agencies handling most refugee-related tasks.

Parliament approved the extra funding by 577 votes to 66, with 14 abstentions.

Besides approving the immediate budgetary changes needed to accommodate the 23 September informal European Council’s decisions on migrants, Parliament emphasized that the EU’s 7-year framework budget system should be revised, to allow for long-term budgetary measures to deal with what could well prove to be a long-run problem.

"Parliament understands the urgency of the refugee situation and has been ready to act fast to reinforce resources to deal with the unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants. However, with the refugee crisis likely to remain an issue in the coming years, we want to ensure adequate resources for it in the longer term, during the revision of the EU multiannual financial framework in 2016”, said rapporteur on changes to the 2015 budget (S&D, ES).

Next steps

Now that both the Council and Parliament have approved the measures, the emergency aid can be made available immediately.

Note to editors

The Commission proposed the following increases in migration-related budget items in its Draft Amending Budget (DAB) 7/2015:

  • - 
    €100 million for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) in commitment appropriations,
  • - 
    €1.3 million in commitment and payment appropriations for 120 new posts at the FRONTEX border agency, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Europol agencies, and
  • - 
    €300 million in commitment appropriations for the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) to contribute to the Madad Trust Fund.

Procedure: budgetary

#EUbudget

REF. : 20151013IPR97349

Updated: ( 15-10-2015 - 09:48)