Amsterdam, 30/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - Many representatives from local and regional authorities have said that they are hoping that the partnership set up by the Pact of Amsterdam will facilitate access to funding to address the migration crisis. They were speaking at a workshop on the integration of migrants and refugees held in Amsterdam on Sunday 29 May, as part of the FabCity initiative, upstream of the adoption of the new EU urban agenda.
The Pact of Amsterdam was signed at the informal General Affairs Council in Amsterdam on 30 May (see other article). The aim is to set up operational partnerships bringing together the member states, local authorities and European Commission, as well as representatives from civil society, around specific themes (see EUROPE 11552) and facilitate exchanges between the different decision-making levels. A source at the Committee of the Regions (CoR) told us: “We hope that these partnerships will help to ensure that the voice of the local authorities is better heard by the member states and Commission”.
This hope is particularly important in the context of integrating refugees and migrants because accessing funding is the major source of concern among city representatives. This is particularly true for Wouter van der Heijde, Deputy Mayor with responsibility for European affairs in the city of Amsterdam. This city is the coordinator of the refugee and migrant integration pilot partnership project. He explained that financing was the starting point of successful integration policy, with regard to funding for accommodation, education and language courses, as well as psychological follow-up services, etc. He indicated that, at a national level, public assistance was scarce and the local authorities were looking to the EU, particularly to the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The main sticking point is that it is only the member states that have direct access to this fund and not the cities, which are, therefore, dependent on the national level for funding.
Lian Priemus presented a local Dutch initiative on providing accommodation for migrants and refugees and said that the member states were reticent about taking action for political concerns. A system for providing accommodation and effective follow-up may, however, help to encourage refugees and migrants to remain in that area but this could be misinterpreted by the local communities at a time when xenophobia is increasing, she explained.
This observation is borne out by the number of member states participating in the pilot partnership project. Currently, only three member states are listed on the official urban agenda websites (Greece, Portugal and Italy), whereas for the majority of other pilot partnerships, the quota of participating member states set at five has already been reached. One source close to the dossier explained: “It is certain that it is more difficult to have the member states on board. We would particularly like to have countries of the South and transit countries on board, as well as states in the north of the Union, which are the final destination for refugees and migrants”.
The question of financing is a recurrent issue among local and regional authorities (see EUROPE 11511). In this connection, direct use of the AMIF by the local authorities was already spoken about by the CPMR during a meeting with the president of the European Commission in April of this year (see EUROPE 11531). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)