Funding for the Integration of Immigrants in Spain: Its Inconsistency Regarding the European Regulatory Framework

The European Commission has developed important instruments designed to promote cooperation between European institutions and EU Member States on policies related to the integration of immigrants. One of the most significant instruments to be created is the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals, which has a funding budget for the period 2007-2013 of 825m euros. The Fund's main objective is the integration of third-country nationals that have recently arrived in a Member State who hold a resident permit. The European Fund for the Integration is distributed among the countries of the European Union according to certain objective criteria, meaning that year after year Spain is one of the countries to receive the highest amount of financing from the Fund. However, there is a lack of coherence between the objectives of the European Fund and the programmes it finances in Spain.