Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy

KEY POINTS

The BMVI aims to:

• ensure the strong and effective integrated management of Europe’s external borders;
• contribute to a high level of internal security;
• safeguard the free movement of people within the EU;
• respect EU law and international obligations.

Two specific objectives — Annex II sets out the measures to be used — are to support:

• the European Border and Coast Guard (see summary) as a shared responsibility of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency and national authorities to facilitate legitimate border crossings, prevent and detect illegal immigration and cross-border crime and manage migratory flows effectively (Annex III contains the scope of costs that may be financed);
• the common visa policy and a harmonised approach on issuing visas to facilitate legitimate travel and help prevent migratory and security risks.

The BMVI’s activities:

• focus primarily on areas such as cross-border infrastructure, operating equipment, training, deployment of immigration liaison officers, pilot studies and exchange of best practice (Annex III sets these out in detail);
• may be expanded by the European Commission to address unforeseen or new circumstances;
• complement national, regional and local measures and benefit the EU.

The Commission, EU Member States and the European External Action Service, when working with non-EU countries, must:

• ensure activities are coherent with EU external and internal policy;
• focus on measures that are not oriented towards development.

The 7-year budget totals €5.241 billion, plus an extra €1.141 billion. This is used as follows:

• €3.668 billion is allocated to national programmes, of which €200,568,000 is allocated to a special transit scheme for Lithuania;
• €1.573 billion is allocated to specific actions, EU actions and emergency assistance (known as ‘the thematic facility’), primarily to support internal EU policies;
• a small percentage (up to 0.52%) is allocated to technical assistance, at the Commission’s discretion;
• a minimum of 10% of national programmes must be allocated to visa policy.

Annex I sets out how the budget, which allows some pre-financing, is distributed between national programmes:

• each Member State receives a basic fixed amount of €8 million, except for Cyprus, Malta and Greece (€28 million each);
• the remainder is shared between
  • external land borders (30%)
  • external sea borders (35%)
  • airports (20%)
  • consular offices (15%);
• the EU contribution is normally limited to 75% of a project’s total cost. This may be increased to 90% in certain cases (set out in Annex IV), such as the purchase of operating equipment for the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, and even to 100% for a few actions listed under Article 12, such as emergency assistance.

Member States:

• ensure their programme priorities are consistent with the EU’s border management and visa policies, EU law and international obligations;
• consult the Commission before using the BMVI for a project with, or in, a non-EU country;
• may use up to 33% of their funding allocation for public authorities carrying out the various tasks and services in the EU’s interest (operating support);
• submit to the Commission annual performance reports from 15 February 2023 until 15 February 2031.

The following legal entities are eligible for EU financing:

• those established in a Member State, an overseas country or territory, or a non-EU country listed in the work programme;
• those created under EU law or any relevant international organisation.

Information, communication and publicity obligations require:

• recipients of EU funding to acknowledge the origin of the finance and ensure its visibility;
• the Commission to
  • carry out information and communication activities
  • publish the thematic facility’s work programmes.

The Commission:

• cooperates with public and private partners, including civil society and non-governmental organisations, when using the thematic facility to provide direct finance via grants or public contracts;
• presents information to the European Parliament and Council on core performance indicators regarding borders and visas (set out in Annex V);
• carries out a midterm evaluation of the regulation by 31 December 2024;
• makes publicly available in all official EU languages summaries of the annual performance reports it receives from Member States.