The European Parliament narrowly adopted a controversial amendment to endorse the use of EU funds to help support border-barrier construction on Wednesday, April 19th, but then they voted down the broader budget bill it was attached to, Politico reports.
The topic of EU-funded border walls has become a highly divisive issue in Brussels over the past months, after EU leaders adopted their own version of the resolution at the EU Council summit back in February, when they called for the European Commission to “immediately mobilize substantial EU funds and means” to assist countries on the bloc’s external frontiers to bolster their “border protection capabilities and infrastructure.”
Although the Commission only agreed to fund personnel, vehicles, and surveillance equipment, the agreement was generally viewed as a de facto nod for building fences, since the member states now had the means to reorganize their own border protection budgets to accommodate walls as well—even if Commission President Ursula von der Leyen categorically ruled out the juggling of funds this way, saying that “there will be no funding of barbed wire and walls.”
Now, the European Parliament moved to enforce the Council’s decision as well, with the initiative driven by lawmakers of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP). Although the EPP usually falls closer to the leftist positions on migration than the other two conservative party groups (ECR and ID), they have been known to stand firmly by the member states’ right to erect fences and have repeatedly called for EU support for them to do so. “We as EPP, are also asking that in an extraordinary situation, EU funds must be available to finance this kind of activities [sic],” EPP chief Manfred Weber declared back in 2021.
The amendment to the EP’s budget guidance for the Commission was passed by lawmakers across the political spectrum, with 322 votes in favor and 290 against, with even some social democrat (S&D) and liberal (Renew) MEPs breaking ranks to support it as well. Part of the reason it managed to garner enough support was that it used vague, watered-down phrasing, similar to the Council’s resolution in February, backing the use of EU funds “to support Member States reinforcing border protection capabilities and infrastructure,” intentionally falling short of explicitly referencing walls or fences.
After the vote, the EPP’s home affairs spokesman Jeroen Lenaers hailed the amendment as “a big step forward after the European Council already moved on the issue. If we want to show solidarity, then we must restore the order at our borders, if needed by building fences where they are needed.” Predictably, the leftist S&D and Renew’s hardliners were not so enthusiastic, calling any funds for border walls “unacceptable.”
Although the amendment passed, the budget proposal failed to win enough support in the end, which appears to be partly because of disunion among the conservative forces. Earlier in the day, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) also tried to push through their own amendment, which instead of implicit wording, called on the EU to explicitly finance border fences and protective barriers. Despite being backed by nearly three-quarters of the EPP lawmakers as well, the vote failed by 279 against 328, after which the ECR abstained from voting on the wider budget recommendation, which was then voted down by the S&D-led leftist majority.
However, the vote will have no immediate consequence whatsoever, since the Commission’s draft budget proposal is expected to be presented to Parliament around late-May or early-June, and there will be ample opportunity to debate and amend it by, and even after, then.
