The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) held an exchange of views on Monday 8 June on the financing of asylum, migration and integration policies (AMIF) for the 2028-2034 period.
The lead rapporteur, Ana Catarina Mendes (S&D, Portuguese), presented a draft report focused on a policy of “integration solidarity”. In response to the European Commission proposal, which introduces a new performance-based model linking funds to structural reforms rather than reimbursement of actual costs, Ms Mendes wants integration to once again become the priority objective of this Regulation. To that end, she advocates ring-fencing fixed quotas, requiring “at least 20% for integration actions” and restricting to “only 5% for third countries” the share allocated to the external dimension of migration policy.
These proposals immediately crystallised political divisions between the shadow rapporteurs. Loucas Fourlas (EPP, Cypriot) refocused the debate on security, insisting that “adequate funding for border management and internal security remains essential”, recalling the shared responsibility of ‘front-line’ states.
The tone became particularly harsher on the right of the hemicycle. Jorge Buxadé Villalba (PfE, Spanish) lashed out at a policy “disconnected from reality”, asserting that “Europeans are demanding mass expulsions” and reproaching the draft report for neglecting the root causes in the countries of origin. In a more sovereignist approach, Nicolas Bay (ECR, French) opposed the idea of mandatory quotas, which, in his view, “run counter to this reform and to the principle of subsidiarity”, calling for total flexibility for Member States.
Only the Green MEP Anna Strolenberg (Dutch) supported the text presented. Although critical of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which enters into force this Friday, she considered it now necessary to “make the best of it” and to invest in strengthening humanitarian safeguards, “rather than spending on the external borders”. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)