Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund: recommitment of remaining amounts or allocation of those amounts to other actions under the national programmes

2018/0371(COD)

PURPOSE: to allow the re-commitment of the remaining amounts committed to support the implementation of the Council Decisions (EU) 2015/1523 and (EU) 2015/1601 or the allocation thereof to other actions under the national programmes.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: The European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: The Commission has committed funds to Member States' national programmes under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) to support the implementation of Council Decisions (EU) 2015/1523 and (EU) 2015/1601 establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece. Decision (EU) 2015/1601 was amended by Council Decision (EU) 2016/1754 to take account of legal admissions from Turkey.

The Council decisions allowed the effective relocation, from Greece and Italy, of 34 705 applicants in need of international protection, as well as the legal admission, from Turkey, of 5 345 persons in need of international protection. These decisions have since ceased to apply.

Of the EUR 843 million committed in 2016 to Member States' national programmes under the AMIF, some EUR 567 million are still available. However, payments should be made for these commitments before the end of 2018, after which the amounts will no longer be available to Member States for their national programmes under the AMIF.

The Commission considers that Member States should be able to use the amounts available to continue to relocate by recommitting these amounts to the same action in national programmes or to allocate these amounts to other actions in the fields of migration and asylum, once the Council decisions are no longer valid.

In addition, the target group of persons eligible for relocation should be broadened so that Member States have greater flexibility in the relocations they carry out. 

The AMIF is an important tool to complement EU actions in the fields of borders and security, in particular because it provides financial support for the establishment and operation of reception and registration centres (hotspots). Member States' needs in these areas remain considerable.

CONTENT: The proposal to amend Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 establishing the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) aims to allow Member States to re-commit or transfer amounts within national programmes, through revisions to these national programmes, so as to promote EU priorities in the areas of migration and asylum, including relocation.

In practical terms, the proposal:

  • extends the period for the use of the funds concerned - by two years from the date of the approval by the Commission of the revised national programmes - in order to give Member States sufficient time to implement the actions to which the amounts have been re-committed or transferred;
  • extends the target group of persons eligible for resettlement under the current AMIF, i.e. beneficiaries of international protection, to include applicants for international protection who are being transferred;
  • makes it possible to re-commit amounts committed to supporting the implementation of Council decisions for the purpose of relocations, or to transfer these amounts to other actions defined in the Regulation establishing the AMIF, according to the needs of the Member States. Such re-commitment or transfer operations would be possible only once and would have to be duly justified in the context of a revision of the national programmes, which would have to be approved by the Commission;
  • extends by a maximum of six months the deadline for decommitment of the remaining amounts committed to support the implementation of Council Decisions (EU) 2015/1523 and (EU) 2015/1601, so that Member States have sufficient time to review national programmes and make changes related to possible re-commitments or transfers of amounts.