On Tuesday 12 June in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner for Migration and Internal Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, presented a budget that had been tripled and which focuses on external border protection, whilst containing enough flexibility to respond to sudden crises. This is despite the fact that the member states have still been tearing themselves apart during the last few days over the issue of a boat containing migrants which had been rejected by Italy and Malta and also because the equation is becoming even more complicated with regard to resolving the Dublin regulation dossier.
With a budget of €34.9 billion (as opposed to the current €13 billion) for 2021-2027 and with a dedicated budget of €21.3 billion for overall border management, the Commission undoubtedly wants to send a strong message to countries that think the EU is not doing enough to tackle irregular migrant arrivals. It is, however, also promising to maintain a "humane" reception policy and the Commissioner said in this respect that Europe “is not a fortress".
As part of the €21.3 billion proportion, the Commission has already proposed to dedicate €9.3 billion on a new fund for integrated border management.
It will soon be proposing another regulation for €12 billion for the European coast and border guard and eu-LISA Agency, which will supervise the interoperability of the European information systems, particularly in the border domain. The future European Asylum Agency (ex-EASO) will also receive funding of €900 million at a later stage. This new fund will have an envelope of €9.3 billion and will be organised in a flexible way and will focus on real needs: long-term funding of €4.8 billion will go towards measures taken by the member states in the area of border management and visa policy. A midterm review will take into account new or additional pressures.
Every member state will also initially receive a lump sum of €5 million, with the rest being allocated on the basis of workload, pressure and the level of external land border threats (30%), external maritime borders (35%), airports (20%) and consular offices (15%).
€3.2 billion will go to targeted support action and possibly emergency aid if required.
An envelope of €1.3 billion will help to support member states acquire, maintain and replace modern customs equipment, such as new scanners, automatic mineralogical plaque recognition, sniffer dog teams and mobile sample analysis laboratories.
Migration and migration funds concentrated on member states' real costs
On the migrant section, and still within the total budget of €34.9 billion, the Commission has proposed a budget of €10.4 billion (as opposed to €6.9 billion over the previous period).
This renewed asylum and migration fund aims to cover asylum, legal migration and integration, the fight against irregular migration and returns. An envelope of €6.3 billion will go towards long-term funding and just as it has for external borders, the Commission has included a certain amount of flexibility.
The member states will therefore receive, over the long-term, 50% of this €10.4 billion envelope or €5.2 billion, but the remainder will be distributed on the basis of an assessment of the pressures exerted on the member states. On the basis of subsequent developments, situation and midterm, the rest of this tranche, €1.1 billion, will possibly be distributed differently.
Out of this €10.4 billion, €4.2 billion will go to supporting refugee resettlement (a member state will continue to receive €10,000 for each person resettled) or to respond to other urgent needs and changing situations.
Funding will also be weighted according to a precise key. Each member state will receive, from the beginning of the programming, €5 million, but the money will then be allocated on the basis of the number of asylum seekers or people resettled in the country, the proportion of non-EU nationals legally residing or other legal economic migrants (seasonal workers, students).
The weighting criteria for allocating funds will be based on returns (the number of people who have been the subject of returns decision in a member state where the number of returns decisions have effectively been implemented). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)