The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Miriam DALLI (S&D, MT) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Asylum and Migration Fund (AMF).
Subject matter
This Regulation seeks to establish the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).
Objectives
The policy objective of the fund shall be to contribute to implementation, strengthening and development of all aspects of the common European asylum policy and of the common European immigration policy in line with the principle of solidarity and fair-sharing of responsibility, while fully respecting the Union’s and the Member States’ obligations under international law and the rights and principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
In particular, it aims to:
- strengthen and develop legal migration policies on the European and national level in accordance with Member States’ economic and social needs;
- promote the effective integration and social inclusion of third-country nationals in complementarity with other EU Funds;
- contribute to countering irregular migration and ensuring effective, safe and dignified return, readmission and reintegration in third countries;
- ensure solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility between the Member States, in particular towards those most affected by migration challenges, including through practical cooperation.
Funding
The financial envelope for the implementation of the Fund for the 2021-2027 period shall be EUR 9 204 957 000 in 2018 prices (EUR 10 415 000 000 in current prices). This shall be broken down as follows: (i) EUR 5 522 974 200 in 2018 prices (EUR 6 249 000 000 in current prices) shall be allocated to the programmes implemented under shared management; (ii) EUR 3 681 982 800 in 2018 prices (EUR 4 166 000 000 in current prices) shall be allocated to the thematic facility.
Each Member State shall receive a fixed amount of EUR 10 million (instead of EUR 5 million) from the Fund's allocation at the beginning of the programming period.
Resources for resettlement and humanitarian admission
The amended text stipulates that Member States shall receive every two years an additional amount based on a lump sum of EUR 10 000 for each person admitted through resettlement and EUR 6 000 for each person admitted through humanitarian schemes. Where appropriate, Member States may also be eligible for lump sums for family members of persons to ensure family unity.
It is proposed that the determining Member State shall receive refunding of the costs of reception of an applicant for international protection from the time when the application is made until the transfer of the applicant to the Member State responsible, or until the determining Member State assumes responsibility for the applicant.
Each Member State shall receive a lump sum of EUR 10 000 for each unaccompanied minor who is granted international protection in that Member State, provided that the Member State is not eligible for a lump sum payment for that unaccompanied minor under other circumstances.
Information, communication and publicity
The recipient of Union funding shall promote the actions and their results by providing coherent, effective and meaningful information to multiple relevant audiences, including media and the public in the relevant languages. To ensure the visibility of Union funding, recipients of Union funding shall refer to its origin when communicating on the action. To this end, recipients shall ensure that all communications to the media and the public, display the Union emblem, and explicitly mention the Union’s financial support.
The Commission shall publish information concerning the development of the annual and multiannual programmes of the thematic facility. It shall also publish the list of operations selected for support under the thematic facility on a publicly available website and shall update that list at least every three months.
Emergency assistance
The Commission may decide to provide financial assistance to address urgent and specific needs in the event of an emergency situation resulting from one or more of the following:
- an unforeseen large or disproportionate inflow of third-country nationals in one or more Member States, which places significant and urgent demands on their reception and detention facilities, child protection systems, and asylum and migration management systems and procedures;
- voluntary relocation;
- an unforeseen large or disproportionate inflow of persons in third countries, including where persons in need of protection may be stranded due to political developments, conflicts or natural disasters, notably where it might have an impact on migration flows towards the EU.
Where necessary for the implementation of the action, emergency assistance may cover expenditure which was incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application or the request for assistance, but not prior to 1 January 2021.
Evaluation
By 31 December 2024, the Commission shall present a mid-term evaluation of the implementation of this Regulation in order to examine the effectiveness, efficiency, simplification and flexibility of the Fund. By 31 January 2030, the Commission shall carry out a retrospective evaluation.
Annual performance reports
By 15 February 2023 and by the same date of each subsequent year up to and including 2031, Member States shall submit to the Commission the annual performance report. Once accepted, the Commission shall make summaries of annual performance reports available to the European Parliament and to the Council, and shall publish them on a dedicated website.