EU ministers divided over refugee fund

Date: 23/03/2000

By Gareth Harding

JUSTICE and home affairs ministers will next week attempt to narrow their differences over plans to set up a European refugee fund, but are unlikely to make much progress in bridging the gulf which divides them.

Diplomats say member states are light years away from agreeing what projects should be financed by the scheme, how the €26-million fund should be divided between EU countries and whether it should apply to mass influxes of refugees.

The European Commission unveiled its proposal to set up an EU-wide refugee fund last December in response to calls for the burden of accommodating refugees to be shared more evenly between member states.

Most governments appear to support the Commission's idea of channelling two-thirds of the money into helping asylum seekers and the other third into sheltering bona-fide refugees. But they are split over how to calculate how much cash each country should get.

Smaller countries argue that share-out should be based on the ratio between a member state's population size and the number of refugees on its soil. But the Commission and many larger member states believe this would be overcomplicated.

There are also arguments over what the money should be spent on, with poorer countries pressing for it to go towards constructing new centres for refugees and others for it to support the cost of looking after displaced persons in existing shelters.

Germany and the UK insist the fund should not be used for accommodating sudden mass influxes of refugees, but most other countries believe this is exactly what it is there for.

A heated debate is also taking place over what emphasis the fund should place on returning refugees to their homelands, with the Netherlands arguing that the scheme should finance both voluntary and forced repatriation.

Justice and Home Affairs ministers are set to attempt to narrow their differences over plans to set up a European refugee fund, but are unlikely to make much progress in bridging the gulf which divides them.