The European Refugee Fund

This page gives a general presentation in three parts: Part I covers the latest developments which occurred within the recent years. Part II gives a general view of the matter concerned. Part III documents and reports.

I) Latest developments

NEW [29/09/2009]: The 2009 call for proposals for Community Actions of the European Refugee Fund is open. The deadline for submission of the proposal is 30 November 2009.

The documents related to the call for proposals as well as the guidelines, are available in the right hand menu of this page.

[26/01/2009]: The European Refugee Fund 2008-2013 Community Actions call for proposals 2008 is open. The deadline for submission of the proposal is the 23 March 2009.

On the basis of a Commission proposal (COM (2005) 123 final, COM (2005) 123 final/3) the EP and the Council agreed by the end of 2006 on a draft Decision establishing the European Refugee Fund for the period 2008 – 2013 as part of the general programme 'Solidarity and management of migration flows'. Adoption of the Decision will take place in spring 2007. The Decision will enter into force the day following the publication in the Official Journal.

The European Refugee Fund has been in place since 2000. Currently, the third generation of the Fund is being implemented (OJ 2007 L 144 p.1).

 

II) General context

To know more about the Framework Programme, you will find below information about its main characteristics:

1. Purpose
2. Beneficiaries
3. Resources and financial structure
4. National programmes
5. Community Actions

1. Purpose

The general objective of the European Refugee Fund (ERF) is to support and improve the efforts of Member States to grant reception conditions to refugees, displaced persons and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, to apply fair and effective asylum procedures and to promote good practices in the field of asylum so as to protect the rights of persons requiring international protection and enable Member States asylum systems to work efficiently.

The new ERF will be applicable as of 1 January 2008. In light of the objectives and priorities of the Hague Programme regarding the development of the Common European Asylum System in its second phase, it introduces support for three new actions: capacity building for the asylum systems of the Member States in general; the voluntary efforts of Member States to provide a durable solution in their territories to refugees and displaced persons identified as eligible for resettlement by the UNHCR and the voluntary burden sharing between Member States consisting of the transfer of beneficiaries of international protection from one Member State to another, which grants them a similar protection.

Moreover, from 2008 the reserve established for emergency measures in the context of temporary protection (Council Decision 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 (10 million each year)) can also be used to address particular pressures situations resulting from sudden arrivals of large numbers of persons who may be in need of international protection and which place significant and urgent demands on Member States' reception facilities or asylum systems.

2. Beneficiaries

All Member States participate, except Denmark. UK and Ireland have opted in.

3. Resources and financial structure

628 million Euro for the period 2008 – 2013 is divided as follows:

• 566 million distributed among the states on the basis of objective criteria relating to the number of asylum seekers and integrating persons benefiting from international protection (refugees, persons benefiting from subsidiary protection)('solidarity');
• 62 million (10% of the total annual resources each year) for Community actions, with a particular emphasis on supporting practical cooperation between Member States.

4. National programmes

On the basis of Community strategic guidelines and in dialogue with the Commission, each beneficiary Member State will develop their own multi-annual programming strategy (2008 – 2013) on the use of the resources they receive each year. The strategy will constitute the framework for the implementation of actions through annual programmes. Each beneficiary state should take adequate measures to guarantee the proper functioning of their management and control system and the quality of implementation of their programmes.

Before 1 March each year the Commission shall approve the annual programme of each beneficiary Member State and take the necessary financing decision, allocating a pre-financing payment of 50%. Further payments will depend on the progress in implementation of the actions.

50% or, for Cohesion Fund countries and actions implementing specific priorities of the strategic guidelines, 75% of the actions can be co-financed by the Fund.

5. Community Actions

Each year the Commission shall adopt an annual work programme and invite bids for calls for proposals and/or tenders for transnational actions and actions in the interest of the Community. The Commission shall be responsible for the management of the actions selected (centralised management).

 

III) Documents and Reports

Document name	Language	Format [Size]
2009
Annual work programme 2009		[52 KB]
2008
Call for proposals "Community actions" 2008		[52 KB]
Annual work programme 2008		[67 KB]