Brussels, 19/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The migrant and refugee crisis will continue to weigh heavily on the EU budget for 2017, the MEPs of the committee on budgets of the European Parliament reiterated in their adoption (25 votes in favour, six against and four abstentions) of the report by Jens Geier (S&D, Germany) on the general guidelines for the preparations for the 2017 budget.
The budgets committee states that the European economic forecasts (autumn 2015) published by the Commission indicate recovery which is still “below the growth potential” of the European Union. The MEPs argue in favour of boosting investment, particularly by means of “a better coordinated increase in public and private investment with a focus on the EUROPE 2020 targets”.
The MEPs regret the fact that the budget of the Union in recent years has suffered collateral damage from the “duplicitous behaviour” of the member states, which have treated it as an adjustment variable. They call for greater flexibility regarding the expenditure made by the member state in specific areas, such as investments in the framework of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), tackling unemployment, poverty and inequality, also regarding the migrant and refugee crisis.
Overcoming crises. The budgets committee acknowledges that despite the mobilisation of considerable budgetary resources for 2015 and 2016 to tackle the migrant and refugee crisis, “this crisis has not yet been solved”, either within the EU or in the countries of origin. It stresses that considerable additional financial resources will be needed to deal with the crisis, because the rising numbers of refugees and migrants cannot be considered a temporary phenomenon. Longer-term solutions are called for by the MEPs, not only in the annual budget, but also in the mid-term revision of the multi-annual financial framework of the EU 2014-2020.
The Commission is called upon as a matter of urgency to present a medium and long-term political and financial plan to tackle the migration crisis and its effects on the 2017 budget.
The MEPs note the creation of the Union's regional trust fund in response to the Syrian crisis and the emergency trust fund to promote stability and fight the underlying causes of illegal migration and the phenomenon of displaced persons in Africa. They call upon the member states to keep their promises and match the contribution made to these funds by the Union, amounting to €2.3 billion. The budgets committee is deeply concerned at the low level of financial contributions by the member states to these funds.
The committee welcomes the principle and objectives of the envisaged Refugee Facility for Turkey, with an envelope of €3 billion (including €1 billion from the EU budget in 2016 and 2017) and calls upon all of the member states to provide appropriate financial support in favour of this fund. It also stresses that the EP is determined to apply all political and institutional means of pressure in order to ensure that the member states deliver on their commitments regarding their contributions to these three funds (Syria, Africa and Turkey). The MEPs call upon the Commission to explain how the contribution of €1 billion from the EU's budget for Turkey will be made available in the framework of the upper limits of the respective budgets of the Union for 2016 and 2017. Lastly, the committee takes the view that these three funds are neither inside nor outside the EU budget and are therefore not covered by the necessary accountability and democratic process prescribed by the Community method. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)