European Parliament backs €10 billion to help front line member states deal with asylum and migration
Date
19 Feb 2019
Sections
Justice & Home Affairs
The European Parliament committee for civil liberties, justice and home affairs, today backed the creation of a €10 billion fund to help member states effectively manage asylum, migration and integration for the period 2021-2027.
S&D Group MEP and Parliament negotiator for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund Miriam Dalli said:
“The European Parliament today backed creation of a fund of over 10 billion Euros to help member states deal with migration and asylum. This instrument should be used to help frontline member states, who have had to deal with the vast majority of new arrivals. We insisted that 95% of this funding should be used within EU countries, as separate mechanisms already exist to help third countries. For this reason, we are disappointed that the centre-right EPP Group opposed this.
“Over the last five years, member states have struggled to manage the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees to Europe. While national governments have called on the EU to do more, they have not given it the means to do so. It is essential that in the next long-term EU budget, enough money be devoted to managing migration, asylum and integration in an effective and humane way.
“National governments must finally act and reform the EU’s asylum and migration policies to ensure that all member states take their share of responsibility. Likewise, we will never stop fighting to ensure that member states on the EU borders receive the necessary support.”