Publication of the proposal for the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework

The European Commission (EC) has published part of its plans for the next long-term EU budget (officially called the ‘Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034’). It has proposed to increase the overall MFF to €2 trillion and to significantly change the way that EU funding is managed. This would include a substantial reduction in the number of funding programmes, increased flexibility in the management of the budget and the introduction of additional sources of revenue to supplement the contributions currently made by EU member states (MS).

Although no detailed proposals on funding for activities in the areas of asylum and migration have been published yet, it is possible to make a few initial observations.

The EC is proposing to merge all of the current ‘Home Affairs’ funding programmes (i.e. the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF)), funding for relevant EU agencies such as the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA) and the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) into a single programme which would also include funding for regional development and agriculture and fisheries. Instead of individual programming processes for the different funding priorities, 14 existing EU funds would be incorporated into new national and regional partnership plans to be implemented by MS and regions. While it is foreseen that some of the funding would be managed by the European Commission in a so-called ‘Thematic Facility’, the vast majority of the proposed €865 billion budget would be managed by MS. The sole spending target included in this part of the proposal is for 14% of the total to be allocated to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The amount of funding that is foreseen under the new merged funding structure is significantly higher than its equivalent in the current funding period (2021-2027). The EC has proposed a doubling of the funding allocated to EU agencies, including EUAA and Frontex, and a tripling of the funding allocated to the AMIF, the BMVI and the ISF. The overarching priorities for this funding are migration management and strengthening Europe’s borders. The AMIF priority objectives of asylum and inclusion are not even mentioned in the Fact Sheet on Home Affairs Funds which is titled simply ‘Migration Borders Security’.

The Communication on the MFF highlights the EC’s ambition to create a stronger link between the principles of the rule of law, including recommendations from the rule of law report, and the national and regional partnership plans, including through reallocating funds from MS to activities in support of democracy, civil society and the fight against corruption.

Regarding funding for migration and forced displacement outside the EU, the EC has proposed a new Global Europe Instrument (GEI) with a budget of € 200 billion. It would include all of the funding that is currently included in the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) and it would also incorporate the current Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance and the Humanitarian Aid Instrument, plus a proposed ‘Ukraine Reserve’.

Migration and forced displacement feature prominently in the proposed GEI – as they do in the NDICI. However, the proposal for the new instrument goes beyond the current approach of positive migration conditionality in which additional funding is made available to third country governments to undertake migration-related activities, to include a punitive approach whereby the EC, in consultation with the European External Action Service, may suspend payments or the implementation of a programme in a third country if it fails to co-operate with the EU on readmission.

ECRE will undertake a more detailed analysis of the MFF when the relevant legislative proposals are published. In the meantime, various publications containing ECRE’s analysis of and recommendations on the proposals for the current MFF are set out below: