Press Release
15/10/2008EU Budget 2009: EPP-ED secures support for Southern Member States on immigration. Salvador Garriga Polledo MEP (Spain), Simon Busuttil MEP (Malta), Margaritis Schinas MEP (Greece) and Panayotis Demetriou MEP (Cyprus)
The Budgets Committee of the European Parliament this week adopted an amendment to the 2009 EU budget to allocated financial resources for the establishment of a "Solidarity Mechanism" to enable burden-sharing on immigration among EU Member States.
The amendment was co-signed by EPP-ED MEPs, Salvador Garriga Polledo (ES), Simon Busuttil (MT), Margaritis Schinas (GR) and Panayotis Demetriou (CY).
Voting on the EU 2009 budget, the Budgets Committee endorsed an amendment to allocate an additional €5 million to the European Refugee Fund so that the operation of the burden-sharing mechanism could start. Another €5 million were allocated to promote other resettlement schemes.
The endorsement comes in the wake of the recent agreement in the Council of Ministers on the European Immigration and Asylum Pact.
Four MEPs coming from four Southern Member States, Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Greece, expressed satisfaction that the Committee had endorsed their request.
"This week the Parliament followed in the footsteps of the Immigration Pact recently adopted by Counci,l in giving the green light for a burden-sharing mechanism." they said.
"Moreover, we went one step further by allocating an initial €5 million to help get this mechanism going. In this way, Parliament is truly putting its money where its mouth is." they said.
Separately, the Committee also adopted a compromise on another amendment tabled by the same EPP-ED MEPs to allocate an additional €10 million to the EU's Frontex agency to enable it to extend its maritime missions in Southern Europe on a permanent basis with effect from next January.
"Frontex has been successful in the Canary Islands, but less so in other areas. We want Frontex missions to be more effective and to become permanent in immigration hot spots, as illegal immigration cannot be combated on a part-time basis but all year round. This is why we are making sufficient resources available to achieve this." said the MEPs.
The vote in the Budget Committee is expected to be endorsed in the Parliament's plenary when it meets later this month in Strasbourg to vote on the first reading of the EU budget for 2009.
Background:
Amendment on the establishment of a “Solidarity Mechanism”
The amendment on the establishment of the “Solidarity Mechanism” reflects the burden-sharing provision recently adopted in the Council of Ministers and states that: "A solidarity mechanism shall be established to facilitate the voluntary reallocation (or resettlement) of refugees and beneficiaries of international protection from EU Member States which are facing severe pressure from immigration flows to other Member States. The project would establish the mechanism at EU level and put it into operation on a test basis so that it may eventually be pursued under a Common European Asylum System. Member States would freely determine all aspects of the selection process on a voluntary basis. The Commission would set the framework, issue guidelines, facilitate co-ordination and encourage participation."
Amendment on Frontex
The compromise reached on the amendment on Frontex increases its operational budget by an additional €10m on condition that its sustains “the commitment to permanent missions, notably at the Southern borders of the Union (Hera, Nautilus and Poseidon) as from 2009.” Of this amount, €5 m were put in reserve to be released after the Executive Director of the agency submits plans to make the operations permanent as from next January.
For more information:
Simon Busuttil MEP, Tel: +32-2-2847686
David Stellini, EPP-ED Group Press Service, Tel: +32-473-541926
Notes to Editors:
The EPP-ED Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 288 Members from all 27 Member States.
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