Additional funding of around EUR 5.7 million to the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund

The implementation programme of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) will receive an additional resettlement appropriation of EUR 5.7 million, which the European Commission will pay to Finland.

The funding will be allocated to measures related to the reception and integration of quota refugees who arrived in Finland in 2020. During the previous monitoring period from October 2019 to October 2020, 572 quota refugees arrived in Finland.

In addition, the core funding of the Fund will be reallocated between the objectives of the Fund in order to make full use of the funding in the call for proposals that starts on 3 May 2021. 

The AMIF call for proposals, which starts on 3 May 2021, will include the resettlement appropriation that is to be added to the implementation programme. In addition, approximately EUR 1 million of unspent funds that were already previously included in the programme will be open for application. This means that the resettlement appropriation that is open for application will amount to around EUR 6.7 million. Besides the inclusion of the additional appropriation, the programme, which is to be amended, will define the distribution of the funding among the objective.

The change in the distribution of the Fund's core funding between the different objectives of the national programme of the Fund and the implementation programme specifying the national programme will be done to make full use of the funding in the call for proposals to be launched in May. Funding will be allocated especially to the national objective of integration, and as part of this a thematic call for proposals that concern how to promote receptiveness in society will be launched in May. Regarding the thematic call, one of the purposes of the projects to be supported is to make the role of society visible in the integration of third-country nationals into Finland and to identify factors affecting it.

An amendment to the Fund's implementation programme is needed to include the resettlement appropriation in the programme and to reallocate funding between the Fund's specific and national objectives. The amendment to the implementation programme was adopted at the government plenary session on 22 April 2021.

The AMIF monitoring committee discussed the amendments to the programme in its written procedure from 12 to 23 March 2021. The monitoring committee supported the proposed reallocations of funding.
 
Inquiries:

Iikka Saunamäki, Senior Specialist, tel. +358 295 488 267, [email protected]  

Kristiina Mauriala, Senior Specialist, tel. +358 295 488 275, [email protected]