|Published on: 11th February 2026|Categories: News|
ECRE has published a policy paper which analyses the European Commission’s (EC) proposal for the EU’s long-term budget (Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)) the period 2028-2034. The paper is focused on the elements that will have the greatest impact on the funding available for activities related to asylum, migration and inclusion. It also includes specific recommendations to inform the negotiations on the legislative proposals.
The EC’s proposal for the next MFF represents a significant change to the way the EU’s long-term budget is structured, managed and spent. It foresees a merger of funding instruments that will result in a reduction in the number of EU funding programmes from 50 to just 16. It also foresees that a significant proportion of EU funding will be centrally planned and managed through ‘National and Regional Partnership Plans’ and that EU member states will have greater flexibility in their management of funds, including via the elimination of most spending targets.
The analysis included in the policy paper is focused on the funding that the EC has proposed to allocate in the area of ‘Home Affairs’ and the imbalance between the resources that are foreseen for asylum and protection versus those intended for border management and security. It highlights the changes in the proposed objectives for EU funding and assesses the impact that the removal of spending targets will have on activities aimed at supporting asylum and inclusion at the national level. It also clarifies the modalities that may either enable or hinder civil society organisations’ access to EU funding as well as the overall realisation of the partnership principle.
The policy paper concludes with a set of questions on the issues at stake in the negotiations on the next EU MFF, to which the co-legislators will need to find appropriate answers.
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