General principles
1. Support provided under the Fund shall complement national, regional and local intervention, and shall focus on bringing Union added value to the achievement of the objectives of the Fund.
2. The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that the support provided under the Fund and by the Member States is consistent with the relevant actions, policies and priorities of the Union and is complementary to support provided under other Union instruments.
3. The Fund shall be implemented under shared, direct or indirect management in accordance with points (a), (b) and (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1) of the Financial Regulation.
Budget
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of the Fund for the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027 shall be EUR 1 931 000 000 in current prices.
2. The financial envelope shall be used as follows:
(a)
EUR 1 352 000 000 shall be allocated to the Member States’ programmes;
(b)
EUR 579 000 000 shall be allocated to the thematic facility referred to in Article 8.
3. At the initiative of the Commission, up to 0,84 % of the financial envelope shall be allocated to technical assistance, as referred to in Article 35 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, for the implementation of the Fund.
4. In accordance with Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, up to 5 % of the initial allocation to a Member State from any of the funds under that Regulation under shared management may be transferred to the Fund under direct or indirect management at the request of that Member State. The Commission shall implement those resources directly in accordance with point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1) of the Financial Regulation or indirectly in accordance with point (c) of that subparagraph. Those resources shall be used for the benefit of the Member State concerned.
General provisions on the implementation of the thematic facility
1. The amount referred to in point (b) of Article 7(2) shall be allocated flexibly through a thematic facility, using shared, direct or indirect management as set out in work programmes.
Funding from the thematic facility shall be used for its components, which are as follows:
(a)
specific actions;
(b)
Union actions; and
(c)
emergency assistance as referred to in Article 25.
Technical assistance at the initiative of the Commission, as referred to in Article 35 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, shall also receive support from the amount referred to in point (b) of Article 7(2) of this Regulation.
2. Funding from the thematic facility shall address priorities with a high Union added value or be used to respond to urgent needs, in line with agreed Union priorities as reflected in Annex II. Funding from the thematic facility shall be used for supporting actions in or in relation to third countries, within the objectives of the Fund, in particular in order to contribute to combating and preventing crime, including drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings and combating cross-border criminal smuggling networks.
The allocation of the resources of the thematic facility among the different priorities shall, as far as possible, be proportionate to the challenges and needs, so as to ensure that the objectives of the Fund can be met.
3. The Commission shall engage with civil society organisations and relevant networks, in particular with a view to preparing and evaluating the work programmes for Union actions financed under the Fund.
4. When funding from the thematic facility is provided under direct or indirect management to Member States, the Commission shall ensure that projects affected by a reasoned opinion delivered by the Commission in respect of infringement proceedings under Article 258 TFEU that put in doubt the legality and regularity of expenditure or the performance of those projects are not selected.
5. For the purposes of Article 23 and Article 24(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, where funding from the thematic facility is implemented under shared management, the Member State concerned shall ensure that, and the Commission shall assess whether, the envisaged actions are not affected by a reasoned opinion delivered by the Commission in respect of infringement proceedings under Article 258 TFEU that put in doubt the legality and regularity of expenditure or the performance of the actions.
6. The Commission shall establish the overall amount to be made available for the thematic facility under the annual appropriations of the Union budget.
7. The Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, adopt financing decisions as referred to in Article 110 of the Financial Regulation for the thematic facility, identifying objectives and actions to be supported and specifying the amounts for each of the components referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article. Such financing decisions shall set out, where applicable, the overall amount reserved for blending operations. Financing decisions may be annual or multiannual and may cover one or more components of the thematic facility referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 33(3) of this Regulation.
8. Following the adoption of a financing decision as referred to in paragraph 7, the Commission may amend the Member States’ programmes accordingly.
