Amending budget 1/2016: emergency support within the Union; European Police Office (Europol)

The European Parliament adopted by 584 votes to 64 with 33 abstentions, a resolution on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 1/2016 of the European Union for the financial year 2016, new instrument to provide emergency support within the Union.

Parliament recalled that the massive influx of refugees and migrants into Europe has created an exceptional situation whereby a large number of persons require urgent humanitarian assistance within the Union. This emergency situation has overstretched the response capacity of the Member States most affected and no appropriate instrument was available at Union level to address humanitarian needs. Accordingly, the Commission presented on 2 March 2016 a proposal for a Council Regulation aimed at filling a gap in the available instruments in order to address humanitarian needs within the territory of the Union. It subsequently proposed a Draft amending budget aimed at creating the budget structure for that instrument and at making available, from redeployment within the heading 3 of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), EUR 100 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 80.2 million in payment appropriations for immediate funding needs.

The Commission also proposed to reinforce the staffing levels of the European Counter-Terrorism Centre in EUROPOL and to provide the corresponding commitment and payment appropriations for an amount of EUR 2.0 million to be redeployed from the Internal Security Fund.

In this context, Parliament welcomed the proposal by the Commission and pointed to the deteriorating situation of migrants and asylum seekers. It stressed the need to show solidarity with the Member States facing such an emergency situation on their territory.

It particularly called on the Commission to consider a more sustainable legal and budgetary framework in order to allow for humanitarian aid within the Union to be mobilised in the future, when circumstances so require. Parliament noted that such emergency funding, meant at responding to crises and unforeseen situations, should by its very nature be covered by special instruments and be counted outside the MFF ceilings;

AMIF: Parliament noted that the Commission proposes to finance the first instalment under this new instrument by redeploying appropriations from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) appropriations, which were already meant to ensure burden-sharing between Member States in dealing with refugees. It believed that the entire amount cannot be covered through redeployments without affecting the delivery of the AMIF, which is bound to come under pressure this year and might need further reinforcements if the relocation scheme is to reach full speed. It considered, therefore, this EUR 100 million to be a frontloading of appropriations which will need to be compensated at a later stage. Parliament noted that there is no margin left under heading 3 and that the Flexibility Instrument has already been used in its entirety for 2016. it supported, therefore, the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin for the remaining amount for this year as soon as necessary and invited the Commission to present a proposal in this respect. Parliament anticipated that an upward revision of the MFF ceiling for heading 3 will prove to be inevitable in order to address all needs linked to the refugee and migration crisis;

Lastly, whilst affirming its willingness to adopt Draft amending budget No 1/2016, Parliament urged the Commission to exclude all agencies dealing in the broader sense with migration and security from the 5% staff reduction target as they are all understaffed given the tremendous increase in workload.