European Commission approves Malta’s programme for migration fund

The Parliamentary Secretariat for European Union Funds has announced that the European Commission has approved Malta’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund for the 2021-2027 financial period.

The fund provides assistance to European Union (EU) member states in coping with the influx of migrants, inter alia by providing asylum facilities, strengthening solidarity between member states and creating more mechanisms to support the most affected countries from less affected countries.

Malta has been allocated €52.3 million in European funds for the sector.

“In 2020, Prime Minister Robert Abela managed to negotiate and achieve Malta’s largest ever EU funding package. Subsequently, in recent months, the Maltese Government has been going through ongoing negotiations with the European Commission on how our country will invest these funds through different programmes,” a government statement read.

Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Chris Bonett welcomed the approval of the first programme by the European Commission.

"Prime Minister Robert Abela managed to acquire for Malta an allocation of €2.25 billion, double the amount we had available from the 2014-2020 programme. So, we had a duty to do important work in designing clear ideas of where and how we would carry out projects for people with these funds,” he said.