EU pays for Romania's asylum, migration and integration programs

Romania will receive over EUR 24 million from the European Union (EU) to fund asylum, migration and integration projects between 2014 and 2020. Most of these funds, namely EUR 21.9 million, will be provided under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the European Commission has announced. Romania will use another EUR 580,000 for relocation of migrants, and over EUR 1.9 million to help them return to and reintegrate in their home countries. Romania’s program is part of the 22 multi-annual projects approved by the European Commission, with a value of around EUR 1.8 billion. Some other 36 national programmes will be approved later this year. Other countries have much bigger EU budgets to help migrants settle in. The UK budget is the biggest: EUR 390 million, followed by France - EUR 286 million, Germany's, EUR 221 million. Romania's budget is in fact one of the smallest, exceeding only Slovenia's EUR 14.7 million budget, Malta's, Luxembourg's, Lithuania's, Bulgaria's, and at par with Hungary's. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com