Deal on EU funds for common asylum, migration and integration policies up to 2027

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament.

On Wednesday, EP and Council reached a political agreement over the budgetary priorities of EU asylum, migration and integration policies over the next seven years.

The renewed Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), part of the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, will amount to €9.882 billion in current prices.

The co-legislators agreed that the new AMIF should contribute to strengthening the common asylum policy, develop legal migration in line with the member states’ economic and social needs, support third-country nationals to effectively integrate and be socially included, and contribute to the fight against irregular migration. Other objectives include ensuring that those without a right to stay in the EU are returned and readmitted in an effective, safe and dignified way. The fund will also support those people to begin reintegrating in non-EU countries to which they have been returned.

Solidarity and responsibility-sharing within the EU

At Parliament’s request, the funds should also aim at enhancing “solidarity and responsibility sharing between the member states, in particular towards those most affected by migration and asylum challenges, including through practical cooperation”.

Most of the funds (63.5%) should be allocated to programmes that are jointly managed by the EU and the member states, whose entitlements will vary depending, among other factors, on the number of third-country nationals residing in the country, the asylum claims received, the return decisions taken and the effective returns carried out.

The other 36.5% will be directly managed by the EU and dedicated, among other actions, to emergency assistance, resettlement and humanitarian admission from non-EU countries and to relocate asylum-seekers and refugees to other EU member states, “as part of solidarity efforts”.

Negotiators also ensured that funds could be allocated to local and regional authorities that implement measures to support people to integrate into their community.

MEPs managed to increase the sum that EU countries will receive for every resettled person (€10.000, up from the €7.000 intended by the Council), the same amount they will get for every person relocated from another member state. While in 2014-2020 countries did not receive funds for humanitarian admission, they will now obtain €6.000 for every person they welcome under this mechanism (€8.000 if it is a vulnerable person).

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“Beefed up, the new fund is going to be a key EU instrument for managing migration, asylum and integration in an effective and humane way. Solidarity will not be just an empty phrase, because EU countries will receive generous financial support, including through resettlement and relocation. Local and regional authorities will also have easier access to EU funds to spend on integration, and increased guarantees will limit the spending outside the EU, which was key for the Parliament”, said rapporteur Tanja Fajon (S&D, SI), after the vote.

Next steps

The deal will now be finalised at technical level. Both Parliament and Council will then have to adopt if formally.