On Friday 22 June, the Council of the EU approved by qualified majority the disbursement of an envelope of €500 million in 2018, to prolong the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (see EUROPE 12037).
This amount will be the subject of draft amending budget no. 3 to the 2018 budget and will be paid for out of the pre-accession aid instrument.
Italy and Poland voted against the text, whilst the Czech Republic abstained.
On 25 May and 5 June of this year, the budgetary committee examined the Commission's proposal and was unable to reach a qualified-majority agreement of the member states on the Council's position on this draft amending budget.
These discussions come as part of the negotiations on the financing terms of the second tranche of €3 billion for the Facility for Refugees in Turkey.
On Monday, the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) failed to agree unanimously on these terms, due to a persistent Italian no-vote. With the European Union once again facing a migration challenge (see other article), Rome is calling for guarantees on the financing of the emergency trust fund for Africa, which is still underfunded (see EUROPE 12017).
The budget committee of the European Parliament will take a position on the proposed amending budget for 2018 on 28 June.
On 14 March 2018, the Commission amended its decision concerning the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, to award an extra €3 billion (a second tranche). The Commission proposed to finance €1.45 billion extra out of the draft 2019 budget as a contribution from the EU budget to the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)