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July 1st, 2016 
Awake Goy Without sufficient funding, the EU cannot perform the functions it was designed for nor meet the expectations of the European people. And because it fails to achieve the objectives it has set for itself, the Union loses its legitimacy and the support of its citizens.
The refugee crisis illustrates the problem. At least €30 billion a year will be needed both inside the Union—to build effective border and asylum agencies, to ensure dignified reception conditions, fair asylum procedures and opportunities for integration—as well as outside its borders—to support refugee-hosting countries and to spur job creation throughout Africa and the Middle East….
Given that its very survival is at stake, the EU should be putting all of its available resources to use. And yet the triple-A credit of the Union has barely been deployed. This is the height of irresponsibility…
In order to raise the necessary funds in the short term, the EU will need to engage in what I call “surge funding.” This entails raising debt by leveraging the EU’s relatively small budget, rather than scraping together insufficient funds year after year…
There is a strong case to be made for using the EU’s balance sheet. Tapping into the triple-A credit of the EU has the additional advantage of providing a much-needed economic stimulus for Europe. With global interest rates at historic lows, now is a particularly favorable moment to take on such debt…
In the short term, reforms of the EU’s existing instruments would allow a far more effective mobilization of resources than the creation of new ones. Two sources of money in particular—the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and the Balance of Payments Assistance Facility (BoP)—should be put to the task…
The Macro Financial Assistance facility (MFA) is yet another source of borrowing specifically designed for actions outside of the EU. It has proven an important instrument in countries like Ukraine but it needs a new framework agreement. (This is urgent because a framework agreement takes a long time to enact and the current Ukrainian government deserves more support than the EU is currently able to offer.)
The combined gross borrowing capacity of the EFSM and the Balance of Payments assistance facility is €110 billion. The borrowing power of the latter is almost completely unused. The EFSM has made some €46.8 billion worth of loans to Portugal and Ireland and its spare capacity grows each year as those loans are repaid.
All the instruments mentioned add up to a substantial unused borrowing capacity.
Spending a large amount at the outset would make it much easier to manage immigration and will allow the EU to respond more effectively to some of the most dangerous consequences of the crisis….Making large initial investments will help tip the economic, political, and social dynamics away from xenophobia towards constructive outcomes that benefit refugees and host countries alike.
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