ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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Chapter V - Resettlement in Europe: Rising Slowly but Surely
• persons with serious medical
needs that can only be addressed
through resettlement. 34
In order to receive the lump sum payments,
Member States must communicate
in advance to the European
Commission how many refugees they
plan to receive under the above categories
for the coming year. This mechanism
is known as the annual ‘pledging
exercise’, and normally takes place in
May of each year. 35
3) ERF Community Actions - amounting
to 4% of available ERF resources and
managed centrally by the European
Commission, this element of the
ERF is designed to promote practical
cooperation in resettlement
between actors in two or more EU
Member States. 36
The ERF 2008-13, also known as ERF
III, has been widely used to support
Member States such as the Czech
Republic and Romania to initiate or
pilot new national resettlement programmes
or to expand and/or improve
national programmes (the Netherlands,
Sweden and the UK). The country sections
in chapter VI highlight examples
of how ERF funding has been used to
support initiatives to improve national
resettlement programmes, including:
34 Article 13 (3), ERF III Decision
35 By 1 May each year, Member States provide the
Commission with an estimate of the number of persons
from the above categories that they will resettle during
the following year. Article 13(6), ERF III Decision.
36 European Commission European Refugee Fund
2008-13 - Community Actions Work Programme for
2012
• piloting the selection of refugees for
resettlement via video interviewing;
• developing new approaches to
pre-departure cultural orientation,
including specific measures for
dossier cases;
• adapting reception arrangements,
for example by receiving resettled
refugees directly into municipalities
rather than reception centres; and
• promoting targeted integration
support programmes for resettled
refugees involving NGO counselling,
volunteering, translation, national
networking, language learning,
employment support and housing
arrangements.
5.2. Use of ERF funding
- challenges
While existing resettlement has thus
been improved via ERF III funding, civil
society partners have highlighted a
number of constraints in its operation.
These include delays in the distribution
of funds to NGOs by national governments,
and difficulties in administering
initiatives in which ERF beneficiaries
must be separated from other groups
using the same services.
One can question how far the additional
ERF III objective of increasing
the number of refugees resettled to
Member States has been achieved.
More than 75% of the 15,292 resettlement
places pledged under ERF III