ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ: ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΠΕΔΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

Maria Daniella Marouda 55 currences beyond its control, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may grant, under certain conditions, Union financial assistance to the Member State concerned. The President of the Council shall inform the European Parlia- ment of the decision taken ”. Such was the spirit of solidarity that found its way into the adoption of new tools and mechanisms during the refugee /migration management crisis of 2015/2016 in Greece. 2.3. Was there a need for a new emergency policy of the EU? Until then, the European Commission Directorate General on Migration and In- ternal Affairs (DG HOME) had designed a number of funding opportunities for the EU member states that faced pressure due to the migration flows. They includ- ed projects for transit or receiving states facing a sudden increase of asylum re- quests. Regular funds available were mainly through UCPM, AMIF, EDRF 35 , ISF 36 , EUSF 37 and ESF 38 and were not considered by the European Commission adequate or suitable to deal with the humanitarian needs of refugees in transit or stranded in Greece 39 . What the Commission argued was that these funding opportunities were not designed for an emergency response, they included own contribution by the member states, none was specifically targeted to address evolving humanitar- ian needs of people on the move within the EU, and none provided for funding the administrative capacity building of national, local and NGO actors, nor for op- erational or coordination purposes (funding staff posts, trainings, coop meetings 35. For the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) see the European Agenda for Migration, see the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee of the Regions, Brussels, 13.5.2015 COM (2015) 240 final. 36. For the Internal Security Fund (ISF) see relevant info on https://ec.europa.eu/home- affairs/financing/fundings/security-and-safeguarding-liberties/internal-security-fund- police_en 37. The European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) was set up to respond to major natural disasters and express European solidarity to disaster-stricken regions within Europe. The Fund was created as a reaction to the severe floods in Central Europe in the summer of 2002. Since then, it has been used for 80 disasters covering a range of different catastrophic events including floods, forest fires, earthquakes, storms and drought. 24 different European countries have been supported so far for an amount of over 5 billion €. It is worth noting that the EUSF is not a rapid response instrument for dealing with the effects of a natural disaster. Financial aid can only be granted to the applying State following an application and budgetary process which can take several months to complete. 38. For the European Social Fund (ESF) see https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index. cfm/en/funding/social-fund/ 39. See Commission Communication of 10 February on the State of Play of Implementation of the Priority Actions under the European Agenda on Migration - COM(2016) 85 final.