The coming budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), will be in effect from 2028 to 2034. The European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – has presented its proposal for how that budget will be spent, with a total bill of around 2 trillion euros. This is just the first step in a long legislative process, involving the European Parliament and the Council, and there could be a lot of changes. Nonetheless, the Commission’s proposal gives a strong indication of how funding will be allocated and what the priorities will be. 

The Commission says its proposal is "ambitious and dynamic" in responding to the key challenges the EU faces. Among those is migration -- an issue that has been front and center of EU politics for a long time, from disagreement over managing irregular migration, multiple scandals over EU agencies’ involvement in deadly ship-wrecks, debates over migration and internal security, the alleged use of migration by non-EU states, namely Russia and Belarus, as 'hybrid warfare' and the implementation of a new common asylum system, among many other aspects.

"Migration is a European challenge that must be met with a European solution," said the Commission. In this explainer, InfoMigrants breaks down what we can expect that to look like.

What is the EU budget?

The EU budget is the amount of money the EU raises, mostly from individual member states' contributions, to fund projects addressing common challenges shared by the bloc. The MFF is the EU’s long-term budget, setting out overall spending for a seven-year period. Within that, an annual budget is adopted each year, after the Parliament and member states have agreed on it. Those funds are disbursed via various instruments – managed for the most part by both the EU and member states – addressing issues such as the rule of law, research and innovation, competitiveness, climate change and, of course, migration.

How has the budget for migration been allocated so far?

EU funding for migration, asylum and borders, alongside member states’ own spending, has typically been disbursed through various instruments. These include the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI), as well as the related Internal Security Fund (ISF) and Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). Individual agencies receive funding as well, such as Frontex, the EU’s external border force, and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).

The 2021-2027 budget for migration, including revisions made after it went into effect, totalled roughly 25 billion euros.

How does the new budget proposal change things?

From what we know so far, there are three main things to note. First, all those funding mechanisms on migration will be grouped together in one overall fund. Second, the amount of money allocated to migration matters will be significantly increased from the previous budget. Finally, with this proposal, the Commission has made borders the top priority.

Change in structure

The Commission has proposed a budget it says will be more flexible and adaptive. "We want less rigidity in this budget," said Commission President von der Leyen.

Where previous budgets allocated funding for migration via the instruments mentioned above, the coming budget will roll those in with various other ‘home affairs’ funds into a single instrument – a 'National and Regional Partnership Plan.'

This, it is argued, will help member states respond more quickly to emerging challenges and crises, including those related to migration.

The new structure will give considerably more control to individual member states, with spending targets removed to reduce administrative burdens, and with the Commission directly managing a smaller portion of the overall funding.

It also appears to mean that, where funding for different programmes was often disbursed by the EU directly to individual regions, now national governments will have more control of what goes where.

Increased funding                                              

Funding for migration had been steadily increasing in previous budgets, and the new MFF proposal continues that trend, with funding for migration, borders and security tripling to 81 billion euros.

This increase is not a surprise. Member states have been calling for it a long time, and with migration such a hot political issue, it was already clear which way the budget would go. 

"The consensus was essentially that the (previous) budget wasn't really sufficient in order to meet the challenges and the ambitions that the EU had," says Helena Hahn, a policy analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, talking to InfoMigrants.

The new structure makes it harder to tell exactly how the money will be doled out, particularly in the case of the instruments mentioned above (AMIF, BMVI, etc), which will still exist but will be lumped together.

When it comes to the agencies, Frontex is to double its budget to 11.9 billion euros – which will fund its planned expansion of operations in the coming years. The EU Agency for Asylum, which supports member states in providing international protection, received a slightly smaller increase of around 80 percent to 2.28 billion euros.

Emphasis on borders, returns

Looking at the Commission’s overall proposal, some clear priorities emerge.

One of those is implementing the EU Pact for Migration and Asylum, an EU-wide common asylum system. The Pact is complicated and costly, and is expected to require investments beyond the nominal implementation deadline of mid-2026. Member states have resisted paying for its implementation, and though they will have to shoulder some of the costs, the EU is expected to contribute as well.

The main emphasis of the Commission’s proposal is strengthening the EU’s borders and internal security – at the expense of asylum and inclusion support.

Nearly half of the funding -- 34 billion euros – will be earmarked for border enforcement, including enhanced law enforcement powers and increased materiel and technologies for border forces.

The proposal documents are "quite clear on where the emphasis is and (that is) borders and security," Josephine Liebl, head of advocacy with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, told InfoMigrants.

In contrast, says Liebl, the proposal downplays asylum and inclusion programmes, "even though we see significant needs across Europe in terms of ensuring that asylum systems function, that there's enough reception capacity in place, and that people who arrive here are supported." Specific spending targets for such programmes that were seen in previous budgets have been removed.

Migration control will also be exerted via the 200 billion euros Global Europe Instrument, which replaces the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument as the main source of funding for projects outside the EU. These include things such as development assistance and social programmes, as well as funding for so-called migration partnerships, such as the EU has with Tunisia and Egypt. Such partnerships see those countries act as agents of external migration control – preventing people trying to leave their territories for Europe.

The Global Europe Instrument has also been noted for introducing a clause which will put pressure on developing countries to accept more of their citizens deported from the EU, amid a push to increase 'returns.' Under the new proposal, developing countries could see development funding suspended or cancelled if they do not accept their nationals back, though this would not apply to humanitarian assistance.

What are the criticisms of the new migration budget?

Many NGOs and civil society organizations have said the Commission’s proposal places too much emphasis on borders and security at the expense of people’s fundamental rights and wellbeing. The increased funding for Frontex has drawn particular criticism. The EU’s border agency has been repeatedly accused in recent years of failing to protect people’s rights and personal data, complicity in violent ‘pushbacks’ at Europe’s borders and, in several cases, failing to act in situations where loss of life could have been prevented.

The removal of spending targets for asylum and inclusion programmes has caused some groups to worry that the needs of people already in Europe will be neglected. "If some member states are not obliged to spend on these issues," says ECRE’s Josephine Liebl, "they will use all the money that they receive from the EU on, for instance, borders or returns."

Other NGOs have said the proposal rolls back on the EU’s commitments in other areas – such as climate change, cost of living and social protection – to funnel money into border security and a 'crackdown' on people seeking shelter in Europe.

The proposal "cuts social programmes across the board, funnelling unprecedented public funds into border militarisation, arms production, and surveillance infrastructure," reads a statement from the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice. At the same time, Chiara Catelli, with the charity for undocumented migrants PICUM, at a briefing said that this proposal is unclear on a lot of social funding, "including if things like access to services and the fight against child poverty will be prioritised."

Finally, the new structure of the funding – all pooled into one – has raised concerns over transparency and accountability – a concern that increases when money is spent outside the EU. When it comes to the external funding the EU provides to third countries such as Tunisia and Libya for migration control, which henceforth will be disbursed via the Global Europe Instrument, Chris Jones with the rights NGO Statewatch at a briefing said, "it's quite hard to see how any human rights values or safeguards can really be upheld."

You can find more information about the EU budget 2028-2034 here.