We face bill of millions to tackle EU migrant crisis

Demand for refugee fund as 110,000 come in just 7 weeks

BRITISH taxpayers could face a bill of millions of pounds under a plan to fund the EU’s response to the migrant crisis.

The EU yesterday said it was taking steps to deal with a possible ‘ humanitarian crisis’ as figures showed that around 110,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year.

The International Organization for Migration said that last year it took from January until July to reach that figure. It said more than 102,500 had crossed into Greece in the seven weeks since January 1 this year and another 7,500 into Italy in the same period.

EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: ‘We are concerned about the developments along the Balkan route and the humanitarian crisis that might unfold in certain countries, especially in Greece.’

Now Brussels bureaucrats are examining a proposal from Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi to create a refugee bailout fund backed by EU cash.

As part of his renegotiation of Brit- ain’s EU membership, David Cameron secured a guarantee that the UK would not be dragged into eurozone bailout funds. But this new scheme would get around that, potentially creating a fresh headache for the Prime Minister in the run up to the referendum.

Brussels officials said yesterday that they were studying Mr Renzi’s plan to raise funds by issuing EU bonds that are guaranteed using its budget as collateral.

Significant sums could be raised to help Italy and Greece with the costs they are facing because of the migrant crisis. However, there would probably be strong objections to the financing proposal from Mr Cameron because taxpayers could be left out of pocket if the money was not repaid.

Governments and companies raise money by issuing bonds. These are a form of ‘IOU’ sold to banks, institutional investors such as pension funds and ordinary savers.

In return for buying a bond, investors are paid interest and receive their money back at the end of the term.

Britain contributes around 12 per cent of the EU budget. Leaders last month agreed to hand over £2.4billion to help Turkey with the crisis.

If they used EU bonds to raise a similar sum for other countries such as Italy or Greece, it would leave the UK exposed to the tune of around £288million – payable if countries default on the bond.

Italy put forward the proposal after European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called on countries to come up with imaginative ideas on how to finance the crisis.

His office yesterday said it was too early to say if it would attempt to go ahead with the plan.

Last October, Mr Juncker said: ‘The European budget is too small by itself to deal with the problems we face.’

A nine-page paper issued by the Italian government called for a common European response to the crisis and suggested issuing bonds to pay for it.

‘Take back control of asylum policy’

Using the EU budget as collateral to raise funds is a sore subject for Mr Cameron. He had to fight hard to stop a similar plan in July to provide financing to Greece during its debt crisis.

Chancellor George Osborne eventually secured an agreement that British money would be ring-fenced and fully protected because Britain is not in the eurozone.

Leader of the House Chris Grayling, who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, said: ‘It appears that the UK is on the hook to bail out the EU’s failing open borders policy.

‘The safer option is to take back control of our asylum policy from the European Court and to spend the £350million we send to Brussels each week on our priorities.’

The chaos caused by the migrant crisis has become worse in the past days as countries have stepped up controls between each other after Austria introduced a daily cap letting only 80 people claim asylum there each day.

Germany yesterday said it is pressing for Turkey to take back migrants trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece. But Fabrice Leggeri, head of Europe’s border control agency Frontex, said it is proving near-impossible to return to Turkey economic migrants who have no case for asylum in the EU.