EU triples budget to secure borders from migrants, 10,000 guards set up

Construction of new infrastructure on the border, including scanners, automatic vehicle registration systems and mobile labs for analysis, will be a priority along with training patrols.

Announcing its $34.9 billion spending plan, for the years 2021-2027, the European Commission insisted however that it would not finance the deployment of sieges to EU borders. Hungary's rightist Prime Minister Viktor Orban last year urged the EU to finance the siege on his country's borders with Serbia and Croatia.

A commission statement stressed that his financing was intended to ensure control of the borders, not their closure. The commission has never financed fences at the border and will not do so even with the new EU budget”. Franz Timmmermans, vice president of the commission said” Given the past experience and the fact that immigration will remain a challenge in the future, we propose an unprecedented increase in funding. Strengthening the EU's common borders will continue to be a major priority”.

Although additional financing is widely accepted by member states, they remain divided over immigration and asylum policies, even after two years of confrontation. The commission will issue Poland, Hungary and the Czech republic in front of the European Court of Justice for failing to respect the system of mandatory quotas intended to accommodate some 120 thousand Syrian refugees.

Hungary has not expected any refugees since the quotas have been approved, while Poland has not been doing so since 2016. The Czech Republic on the other side has not accepted any refugees since August.