Governments close to deal on refugee fund

Date: 21/09/00

By John Shelley

A CLIMBDOWN by Berlin has boosted hopes of a deal on a proposed European fund for refugees, with only Vienna and Madrid now blocking an agreement to release the money.EU diplomats say they are only a whisker away from clinching an accord on the 216-million euro plan to help member states meet the cost of caring for refugees. They predict that interior ministers will overcome their differences and reach a final agreement on the issue when they meet next Thursday (28 September).

Insiders believe that the member states holding out against a deal will be forced to yield to political pressure because the 36 million euro earmarked for the programme this year will be forfeited if no agreement is reached at next week's meeting. "I cannot see the remaining points standing in the way of a deal," said one Union diplomat. "I think we can reasonably expect some movement from Austria and Spain."

Long-running arguments over the package have focused on two issues: how the money should be distributed and how much of the cash, if any, should be set aside for unexpected immigration crises.

Berlin had been opposed to creating a reserve fund because, conscious of the size of its contribution to the budget, it would prefer to leave it up to member states to bear the cost of such influxes.

But diplomats have reached a compromise under which Germany will give the go-ahead for emergency funds to be set aside provided member states make a parallel commitment to continue considering other ways of sharing the burden.

"What has been agreed in terms of emergency funding in this regulation is that this does not represent the final answer in terms of burden sharing," said one Union diplomat. "What the Germans are keen to achieve is a situation where there is burden-sharing but it is not necessarily provided for by the EU's budget."

Spain, which wants a higher proportion of the money to be allocated to emergency measures, is expected to give way in the face of otherwise unanimous agreement on the issue.

A compromise is also in sight over how the money should be distributed among governments. The European Commission initially proposed sharing it out in proportion to the number of refugees in each member state, but countries with fewer refugees argued this would not give them enough to set up basic facilities.

Now all but Austria have agreed that each member state will receive a minimum amount of aid in addition to the per-refugee allowance. This baseline figure will gradually decrease over the five years of the current funding programme, down from 500,000 euro in the first year to just to 100,000 euro in the last. Diplomats say it would not make sense for Austria to sacrifice the cash it would get this year because of its concerns over the deal.

A climbdown by Berlin has boosted hopes of a deal on a proposed European fund for refugees, with only Vienna and Madrid still blocking an agreement to release the money. EU diplomats predict that interior ministers will overcome their differences and reach a final agreement on the issue when they meet on 28.9.00.