The EU’s brawl over whether to pay for border fencing has spilled into the European Parliament.
On Wednesday, EU lawmakers approved a controversial amendment endorsing the use of EU funds to help support border barriers, although it stopped short of explicitly recommending Brussels pay for walls — long a verboten subject that has nonetheless gained momentum of late.
The amendment almost instantly became a poison pill, as lawmakers then killed the broader bill it was attached to — which offered budget guidance for the European Commission — rather than move it through with the added text on border funds.
The amendment — which came from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), Parliament’s largest group — passed with a hodgepodge coalition of lawmakers across the political spectrum, some of whom defied their party line to support the text. It cleared with 322 votes in favor and 290 against, according to public voting records.
The EPP’s home affairs spokesperson, Jeroen Lenaers, hailed the vote as “a big step forward after the European Council already moved on the issue.”
He added: “If we want to show solidarity, then we must restore the order at our borders, if needed by building fences where they are needed.”
But rival groups accused the EPP of selling its soul to the far-right as Europe starts to prepare for a year of fierce campaigning ahead of European elections in May 2024.
“[EPP leader] Manfred Weber dreams of being the Donald Trump of Bavaria,” said the centrist Renew MEP Valérie Hayer. “But he confuses Strasbourg with Mar-a-Lago.”
The center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group wrote on Twitter: “Building walls and fences on our external borders with EU money is totally unacceptable to us!”
Yet while Renew and S&D leaders were withering in their remarks, the groups’ ranks were not united. In an unexpected turn of events, MEPs from both groups defied party direction and supported the EPP amendment, which was attached to the Parliament’s 2024 budget guidelines.
Shortly before the vote, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel — whose party is affiliated with Renew — told reporters in Strasbourg: “I would be ashamed if the answer of migration means to build new walls. For me, the European Union has to take away walls and not to buy new walls.”
The EPP’s amendment was almost identical to conclusions that EU leaders adopted in February during a summit in Brussels. That text similarly pledged significant EU funds to bolster cameras and personnel at its edges, without crossing the red line of directly funding wall-building.
Wednesday’s amendment similarly backed the use of EU funds “to support Member States in reinforcing border protection capabilities and infrastructure, means of surveillance, including aerial surveillance, and equipment.” It did not include references to building “walls” or “fences,” although it did vaguely mention “infrastructure.”
After the amendment passed, lawmakers from the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which favors direct funding for border barriers, abstained from voting on the overall budget guideline bill. The measure then failed to win a majority after the S&D group voted against it.
This vote will not have immediate consequences as the Commission, the EU’s executive, is still expected to present its draft budget proposal to Parliament in May or June 2023, according to a spokesperson from the European Parliament.
The ECR on Wednesday tried to push through its own amendment explicitly calling for the EU to finance border fences. But that measure failed in a close vote, with 328 votes against and 279 in favor, despite support from nearly three-quarters of EPP lawmakers.
Eddy Wax contributed reporting.
