Energy News Beat
The question of EU funding for border fences and walls has resurfaced, with the ever-shifting politics around Europe’s migration debate prompting a possible change in the European Commission’s stance.
The Commission has so far refrained from funding physical barriers at its external borders, stating that “fences are not the most efficient tool for improving border management”.
But in a European Parliament debate last week, European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner broke from the Commission’s longstanding line, saying that EU border management “must be reassessed”.
That Brunner left the door open underscores that the EU executive’s position may shift in whichever direction the political winds blow.
“This whole debate around the funding of border fences and walls is a very political one. It’s a question of what kind of political message the EU wants to send,” Helena Hahn, policy analyst at the European Policy Centre, told Euractiv.
Back in 2021, several member states signed a letter urging the Commission to drop its reservations and adapt the EU’s legal framework to what they called “new realities” – including to allow “physical barriers” to be “adequately funded” with EU cash. Among the signatories were states with external EU borders, like Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
At that time, the Commission position “was in contrast to the Council, then under leadership of Charles Michel,” Hahn said.
“We know that von der Leyen and Michel didn’t have the friendliest of relations,” which Hahn suggests may well have influenced the Commission’s adversarial stance.
But there are two other factors that prevented the Commission position from shifting, Hahn explains: the optics of a move that would closely resemble Trump’s push for a wall on the US-Mexico border during his first term, and the inevitable pushback from MEPs.
However, political realities have since changed – within the Parliament and across member states.
In the new Parliament, “there is even more support now” for EU funding of border fences, said Hahn. “Conservatives are now facing more competition and pressure from the far right and are ramping up the rhetoric in the face of elections, as is the case in Germany”.
According to European Parliament research, by 2022, 12 Schengen area countries had built fences at various sections of their borders.
Spain was the first European country to build external border fences. In the early 1990s, the country built a six meter tall wall around Ceuta and Melilla, its exclaves in northern Morocco.
The Spanish territories have witnessed significant numbers of migrant deaths in attempts to cross the border fence over the years. In June 2022, Moroccan authorities reported 23 migrants and two police officers died during a crossing attempt into Melilla, though NGOs like Caminando Fronteras estimate 37 migrant fatalities from the incident.
What can the EU fund now?
Through the Border Management and Visa Policy Instrument (BMVI) regulation of 2021, the EU already funds complex and digitalised systems for border surveillance and management – but not building or maintaining fences or walls. Member states can tap into a €6.4 billion budget for 2021–2027.
But there is a risk that these EU funds may be used “to purchase vehicles for transporting people in countries where pushbacks have been documented,” said Chiara Catelli, Policy Officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
Just this month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Greece subjected migrants to “systematic pushback” practices in violation of human rights law. Greece is among the EU’s largest recipients of BMVI funds.
“What’s missing is a system of guarantees to ensure that increased funding is accompanied by effective control mechanisms,” Catelli told Euractiv.
Next steps
The Commission is also due to propose a new common approach on returns, set to be presented before the March summit of EU leaders.
But according to Hahn, just as crucial is the upcoming review of the regulation that governs the EU’s border control agency, Frontex.
The proposal aims to expand Frontex’s role in coordinating returns and plans to treble the number of border staff to 30,000 – but questions remain as to whether there could be a window for discussions on EU funding for border fences.
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