We want effective future spending on migration policy

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee adopted a position today on the migration management funding from 2021. By restricting money available for much-needed cooperation to handle returns to and migration flows in third countries, the Report, as voted, makes the Union’s policy on migration and asylum less effective.

Jeroen Lenaers MEP, EPP Group Spokesman on the new Asylum and Migration Fund, said: “The new fund is one of the most important parts of the future EU budget. As requested by the EPP Group, the European Commission significantly increased funds for migration and border management so that the migration crises of 2015 would not be repeated. However, to deliver real results, the new fund should not only have sufficient resources, but it should also allow for flexibility to adapt to future challenges and to be able to divide funding between its policy objectives in a balanced way. With this current Report, the EU will not be able to answer one of the most important challenges the EU is facing: the return of illegal migrants to their countries of origin.”

Numbers speak clearly, added Lenaers: “Today, we manage to return less than 40% of migrants that are not in need of international protection. We need to improve this return rate so that we can focus our energy and efforts on refugees that actually need our help. Decreasing the emphasis on return in the new fund and limiting the money available for cooperation with third countries will make the EU’s asylum and migration policy less effective.”

The EPP Group cannot support the very restrictive 5% cap for funding actions in or in relation to third countries. Given the importance of the fund in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework, we will continue to seek a strong, flexible and balanced Asylum and Migration Fund at plenary level.