Refugees, displaced persons, asylum-seekers: creating a European Refugee Fund

PURPOSE : to establish a European Refugee Fund to support and encourage the efforts made by Member States in receiving refugees and displaced persons bearing the consequences of so doing. COMMUNITY MEASURE : Council Decision 2000/596/EC establishing a European Refugee Fund. CONTENT : the Council adopted this Decision. A consensus reached on the two questions remaining to be solved in this urgent dossier, namely compensation for expenditure resulting from emergency measures in the event of a sudden mass influx of refugees or displaced persons and the scale for the distribution of resources among the Member States made the adoption possible. In addition, reservations by two delegations on compensation for expenditure in the event of application of emergency measures were resolved through the addition of a statement to be attached to the Decision to the effect that the Council would endeavour to come to a decision, in the framework of the Directive on temporary protection, on other measures promoting the balance of effort between Member States in receiving and bearing the consequences of receiving refugees and displaced persons. To recall, the Fund shall operate from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2004. The financial reference amount has been set at EUR 216 million. The Decision also contains measures intended to enable the Member States to cope with emergency situations in the event of a sudden mass influx of refugees or displaced persons, or if it was necessary to evacuate them from a third country, in particular in response to an appeal by international organisations. With regard to the distribution of resources between Member States is proportional: 65% in proportion to the number of asylum-seekers registered over the previous three years and 35% in proportion to the number of refugees over the previous three years. The proportion of co-financing supplied by the Fund is 50% but this may be increased to 75% in the Member States covered by the Cohesion fund. Lastly, the Council shall review this Decision on the basis of a proposal from the Commission by 31 December 2004 at the latest.�