MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The proposal, urgently approved by 584 votes to 64, with 33 abstentions, are included in the Draft amending budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016, according to the statement.
"I welcome this proposal to enable the EU budget to provide emergency support within EU territory in order to tackle the humanitarian consequences of the current refugee crisis. Parliament has acted swiftly by rapidly approving this amending budget," rapporteur Jose Manuel Fernandes, who is responsible for steering the EU Commission budget through the Parliament, was quoted in the EU legislature statement as saying.
The funding to EUROPOL needed "to form the central hub of the fight against terrorism in the EU" has been allocated in the wake of the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks, which killed 130 people and injured over 350 others, and the March 22 series of blasts in Brussels, which claimed the lives of 35 people,
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their homes in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.85 million illegal border crossings in 2015.
