Governance and citizenship

The Europeant Parliament added extra funds for handling the unprecedented flow of refugees inside and outside the EU in Wednesday’s plenary vote on the EU budget for 2016.

Parliament made sure that all the resources available in the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) will be tapped to deal with the ongoing refugee and migration crisis, which needs to be tackled both within the member states and in countries close to the conflicts from which migrants are fleeing. The agreement includes €1.6 billion on top of the Commission's original proposal, and meets most of Parliament's demands.

In a separate vote, on an amendment to the budget for the current year, Parliament asks member states to devote a windfall of €2.3 billion derived from competition fines and higher-than-expected customs duties to finance the shortfall, also €2.3 billion, in meeting their pledges to the Africa Trust Fund (to deal with the root causes of migration) and the Syria Trust Fund (helping refugees and migrants in and near Syria).

(source: European Parliament)