ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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• increasing the humanitarian impact
of the EU by ensuring that it gives
greater and better targeted support
to the international protection of
refugees through resettlement;
• enhancing the strategic use of resettlement
by promoting joint priorities
to guide Member State resettlement
activities; and
• better streamlining the EU’s resettlement
efforts so as to ensure the
benefits are delivered in the most
cost-effective manner possible. 43
Together with the Communication, the
European Commission issued a proposal
to amend the ERF. 44 The proposed
amendment introduced a system of
financial support linked to common,
annually set EU resettlement priorities
designed to maximise the strategic
impact of resettlement through better
targeting of those in greatest need. 45
Although rich in aspiration, the proposed
joint programme maintained
that Member State engagement in
resettlement is entirely voluntary, did
not propose or set numerical targets for
a European resettlement quota and did
not include operational mechanisms to
43 European Commission Communication from the
Commission to the European Parliament and
the Council on the Establishment of a Joint EU
Resettlement Programme, September 2009
44 European Commission Proposal for a Decision of
the European Parliament and of the Council of
amending Decision No 573/2007/EC establishing
the European Refugee Fund for the period 2008 to
2013 as part of the General programme ‘Solidarity
and Management of Migration Flows’ and repealing
Council Decision 2004/904/EC, COM(2009) 447 final
45 Amendments to Article 13 of the ERF Decision
coordinate Member State resettlement
efforts. In real terms, the programme
thus constituted a political framework
and an amendment to the resettlement
funding rules in the ERF Decision.
The proposal to set annual common
EU resettlement priorities led to a disagreement
between the European
Commission, the Council of the European
Union and the European Parliament concerning
the procedure by which the priorities
would be established. 46 In March
2012, after more than two years of
negotiations between the Commission,
the Parliament (led by LIBE 47 MEP
Rapporteur Rui Tavares) and the Council,
a compromise text 48 was adopted that
amended the Council ERF Decision, 49
establishing common EU resettlement
priorities for 2013 and setting new rules
for the financial support that Member
States would receive for resettlement
activities via the ERF.
Under the Joint EU Resettlement
Programme changes to the ERF
46 The Lisbon Treaty of 1 December 2009 introduced
‘delegated acts’, a procedure that permits the
Commission to adopt measures to amend or supplement
certain elements of legislation. Initially, the
European Parliament considered that the setting of
common EU priorities for resettlement was not an
action that could be delegated to the Commission,
but rather a matter in which the European Parliament
has the right of co-decision. The European Parliament
finally agreed that resettlement priorities would be
adopted by delegated acts.
47 Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs
48 European Parliament and European Council,
Decision No 281/2012/EU by the Parliament and
the Council on Amending Decision No 573/2007/
EC Establishing the European Refugee Fund for the
period 2008 to 2013, 29 March 2012
49 ERF III Decision
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CHAPTER VII