EU Court of Auditors’ Report: Integration of third-country nationals in the EU

On Tuesday 3 December, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish a special report on the integration of third-country nationals in the EU.

About the topic

Integration of third-country nationals into a new country requires not only the migrants themselves but also the host society to play a part. Data show socio-economic gaps between third-country nationals and EU citizens, notably with regard to the risk of poverty or social exclusion, or unemployment rates. One of the financial instruments used by the EU to support migrant integration measures is the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. The resources of this Fund allocated to integration measures in national programmes of the EU member states totalled approximately €1 billion for 2014-2020 and increased to around €1.9 billion for 2021-2027.

About the audit

The auditors examined whether the Commission and the member states, within their remits, have made sound and effective use of this Fund for the integration of migrants in the EU. This report complements the ECA’s previous audits of EU migration policy: Special report 06/2017: “EU response to the refugee crisis”, Special report 24/2019: “Asylum, relocation and return of migrants”, and Special report 17/2021: “EU readmission cooperation with third countries”.

The report and press release will be published on the ECA’s website (eca.europa.eu) at 17.00 CET on Tuesday 3 December. The ECA Member responsible for the report is Viorel Ștefan.

The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes, or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments, and political and public interest.