Labour market integration of refugees : EU funding instruments

In the medium term, the European Social Fund (ESF - DG EMPL, EUR 86.4 bn 2014-2020) will gain increasing importance for the integration of refugees. For the initial phase of reception the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF - DG HOME, EUR 3.1 bn) and the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD - DG EMPL, EUR 3.8 bn) support Member States within the scope of their budgets. - As part of the European Agenda for Migration, the Commission has been promoting a flexible and effective use of the existing funds for refugees and called not to lose sight of other disadvantaged groups. It remains to be seen to what extent Member States will adjust their multi-annual planning. A number of countries consider that the existing programmes are flexible enough. - The Commission has implemented a number of activities to enhance the effectiveness of European funding 2014-2020 as regards monitoring of complementarity, building up result-oriented evaluation, streamlining and simplification. Nevertheless, there are indications that pre-financing and co-financing (in particular under the ESF) continue to be relevant obstacles for NGOs. - In a situation of increasing need for resources to manage migration both at the external borders and through reception and integration in the destination countries, first ideas have been floated by a minister and a think tank to create additional European funding instruments, such as a Common European Refugee Integration Fund targeted at municipalities. So far, this has not triggered a more concrete policy debate.