The S&D Group has pushed for an extra €800 million to be included in the 2016 EU budget to support the relocation of 120,000 refugees between EU states. The amendment was included in the draft voted on today in the European Parliament's budget affairs committee. This will now be voted on by the whole parliament at the end of the month (October) in Strasbourg before negotiations begin with the Council to finalise the 2016 budget.
Eider Gardiazabal S&D spokesperson for the budget committee, said:
"Last week national governments finally took action and agreed to the relocation of an extra 120,000 refugees across Europe. We welcomed this but also recognise that we need to have the resources to ensure that it is done in an efficient and coordinated manner. We are therefore pleased to have secured an increase of €800 million for developing and strengthening a common European asylum system."
"As well as tackling the immediate crisis we must also work to mitigate damaging long term effects that stem from it. In particular, in protracted crises it is essential to ensure that children affected continue to receive an education. We have therefore pushed for an increase in the funding available to support education in the EU's humanitarian aid budget in 2016. It will now rise from 1% to 3% of the aid budget (an increase of €26 million). We are also pleased to have secured an extra €40 million for financial assistance to Palestine and to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)."
Jens Geier, head of the S&D negotiating team for the 2016 budget, added:
"Although the most pressing issue for the EU is tackling the refugee crisis we cannot lose sight of the other major challenges we face - lack of growth and competiveness in the EU and high levels of unemployment, particularly among young people. In some EU states general rates of unemployment are still over 20% and over 45% for those under 25. This is unacceptable. In order to fight this we have secured an extra €473.2 million in 2016 for the Youth Employment Initiative, designed to ensure every young person has access to high-quality education, work or training."
"We have also fought to ensure that funding for European infrastructure and research is protected. We are pleased that the Parliament has voted in favour of an increase of more than €1.3 billion for Horizon 2020, the EU's research and development fund, and the Connecting Europe Facility, which funds cross border infrastructure projects. Without investment in these areas we will continue to fall behind other parts of the world and will not be able to create the high-skilled jobs and industries we need to survive in the 21st century."
"We also voted to support the €500 million emergency package designed to support dairy farmers who have been affected by falling commodity prices, Russia’s import ban and increased milk production since the abolition of quotas."
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