Amending budget 5/2015: financing of migration measures

PURPOSE: presentation of Draft Amending Budget No 5 to the 2015 budget to cover a reinforcement of the Union's resources to manage migration and refugee flows.

CONTENT: Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 5 for the year 2015 covers a reinforcement of the Union's resources to manage migration and refugee flows, further to the recent developments in the Southern Mediterranean, in particular through additional appropriations for the FRONTEX agency, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF).

Taking into account the room for redeployment, including from the Galileo programme in payments, the total net increase of appropriations requested for these purposes amounts to EUR 75.8 million in commitment appropriations and zero in payment appropriations.

Proposed measures: in the aftermath of a recent tragic event in the Mediterranean, which caused an estimated death toll of 700 persons, both the Council and Parliament agreed that the European Union should take action.

These measures may be summarised as follows:

• increase the EU contribution to FRONTEX in 2015 by an additional amount of EUR 26.8 million in both commitment and payment appropriations. The aim is to triple the funding for the Joint Operations Triton and Poseidon over the final seven months of the year 2015 (Triton and Poseidon will be reinforced by intensifying aerial and maritime surveillance in an enlarged geographical area to match the scope of Mare Nostrum in order to increase the search and rescue possibilities) ;
• support the frontline Member States in receiving an increased number of migrants, the Commission proposes to reinforce the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF):  under the AMIF, an additional amount of EUR 57 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 45.6 million; under the ISF, an additional amount of EUR 5 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 4 million in payment appropriations is requested for 2015; the additional expenditure in 2015 for FRONTEX is estimated at EUR 528 000, EUROPOL is estimated at EUR 99 000; the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is estimated at EUR 132 000.

Proposed financing: overall, the total reinforcement in commitment appropriations to finance the measures outlined above amounts to EUR 89 million. As regards payment appropriations, an amount of EUR 76.6 million is required to cover the pre-financing (80%) of the additional actions under AMIF and ISF and to allow FRONTEX to proceed with the co-financing of Triton. 

The Commission carefully examined the possibilities of redeployment of appropriations within the 2015 budget, both for commitments and payments. The Commission therefore proposes additional appropriations – EUR 75.8 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 69.7 million in payment appropriations – to provide the additional funding to be authorised in the 2015 budget for the migration measures.