According to Reuters, on Monday the European Union (EU) agreed to slash funding from EU’s 2017 budget for poor regions to reallocate spending to manage the migrant crisis impacting the EU.
The result of slashing funds to poor regions of the EU bloc will result in close to a 25 percent increase in migration and security payments in 2017 compared to 2016, the Council of EU governments stated in a note on Monday.
The countries who will be most affected by the funding slashes are mostly Eastern European.
Ekathimerini.com reports that some Eastern European countries view the EU’s decision as “possible retribution for the opposition of Eastern European countries to EU plans to share out the hosting of asylum seekers across the 28 member states.” However, the EU council made no comments regarding this sentiment as of this time.
So far the migration budget the EU is dealing with for 2017 is at 5.2 billion euros to be allocated towards reinforcing the EU’s external borders, asylum seekers resettlement programs, while an additional 2.2 billion euros has been allocated to helping in addressing and dealing with the circumstances outside of the EU that is causing the influx of migrants to flee their countries and come to the EU.
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