Frontex - the EU's Border Agency - will next year receive an additional €10 million in funds to add to its €70 million budget so that it can extend its illegal immigration patrols in the southern Mediterranean area.
The European Parliament has allocated the extra funding to the Warsaw-based EU agency on condition that the anti-migration patrols run throughout the whole of next year.
The move comes as this year's six-month operation draws to a close with various questions posed on the effectiveness of such patrols. The agency had already said patrols will take place on a permanent basis from 2009 onwards and the new cash injection should make this possible.
According to Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil, who proposed the amendment approved by the EP's Budget Committee, the €10 million injection should only be used on "the commitment to permanent missions, notably at the southern borders of the Union as from 2009".
Of this amount, €5 million has been put in reserve to be released after the executive director of Frontex submits plans to make the operations permanent from January.
"Frontex has been successful in the Canary Islands, but less so in other areas like Malta," Dr Busuttil told the EP Committee before the vote. "We want Frontex missions to be more effective and to become permanent in immigration hot spots, as illegal immigration cannot be combated on a part-time basis, but all year round. This is why we are making sufficient resources available to achieve this," he said.
Last month, Dr Busuttil and Frontex's executive director Illka Laitenen clashed over comments made by the latter that this year's mission off Malta was a failure. Mr Laitenen admitted the mission was not managing to turn back boatloads of illegal immigrants approaching Malta, particularly because of the non-cooperation from Libya.
He also said the EU's increased patrols in the seas off Malta and Lampedusa might actually be one of the main reasons why these two islands this year received more migrants than ever before - since migrants felt they had a better chance of being rescued if things went wrong.
However, Dr Busuttil dismissed Mr Laitenen's comments as "clumsy" and accused him of trying to shirk responsibility.
According to the latest Frontex statistics, since the start of this year's operation in mid-May till the first week of October, Malta received 2,321 illegal immigrants. Not one was turned back by Frontex.
Lampedusa, the other Mediterranean island covered by this EU-coordinated patrol, received 14,171 illegal immigrants during the same period.
On the other hand, the mission conducted off the coasts of the Spanish Canary islands received 7,228 illegal immigrants with Frontex turning back 4,373.
In this case, the countries of origin, Senegal and Mauritania cooperate with the Frontex missions and have agreed to take back illegal immigrants leaving their shores. Libya does not, despite EU pleas.