Ukraine bags one third of EU's €300bn external action budget proposal
European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela said during the budget presentation Thursday that the EU has "entered an era of growing challenges from climate driven instability and global migration pressures to rising competition over critical raw materials, global influence and market access."
The external action budget forms part of the €2 trillion package announced Wednesday by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica said the EU aims to extend its influence through the budget, stating, "global Europe empowers us to be a player, not just a payer."
The enlargement and neighbourhood policy receives the increased funding to help candidate countries accelerate reforms.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said, "Accession talks with Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine have never progressed faster."
Ukraine will receive €100 billion earmarked for reforms and reconstruction. "Whoever thought European support would weaken over time was wrong. Time is really not on Russia's side," Kos said.
The Mediterranean region, including EU southern neighbours in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf, will receive €42 billion designed to shape migration policy.
"We will enhance investments in security and safe borders to better control smuggling and illegal migration," Šuica said, adding that the EU will also "develop legal pathways for migration."
The EU's 2024 migration and asylum pact includes "talent partnerships" with Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco to promote legal migration.
"We need people to fill in the labour shortages in the European market, but at the same time we will fight strongly against illegal migration and against smugglers," Šuica said.
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