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European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR)
News article5 June 2015Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey: additional €18 million from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)

Today, the European Commission adopted a special measure of €18 million from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) to address immediate educational and food security needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The funding will be channelled...

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Today, the European Commission adopted a special measure of €18 million from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) to address immediate educational and food security needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The funding will be channelled through the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis. It comes on top of the financial assistance amounting to €149 million that the EU has already made available for Turkey, out of which around €76 million from IPA.

The assistance will further support the commendable efforts of Turkey in hosting more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees, offering immediate help to address the educational and food security needs of refugees in Turkey.

It is expected that more than 200,000 Syrian refugee children will benefit from second-shift Arabic teaching, psychosocial support, educational materials and refurbished school facilities. There will be a special focus on access to safe spaces in host communities for Syrian children and adolescents, especially girls, to counter the risk of sexual and gender based violence. In addition, 3,700 Syrian and Turkish volunteer teachers will receive training and incentives to enhance quality of education in Arabic. The funding will also ensure sustainability of the e-food card programme for approximately 17,000 Syrians residing in camps and 14,400 Syrians residing in off-camp settings, complementing the on-going Commission humanitarian assistance.

Background

Since the start of the conflict in Syria, more than 11.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including almost 4 million who fled to neighbouring countries, half of them to Turkey. All in all, the funding from the EU budget to support Turkey in facing the consequences of the crisis in Syria amounts to some €167 million.

Todays' €18 million from IPA will be channelled through the EU Regional Trust Fund. More information about the Fund.

Previously, IPA €76 million have been mobilised, including €40 million in March 2015 to facilitate refugees' integration in Turkey (scaling up access to health, education, livelihood opportunities, etc.). In parallel, €44.2 million of Commission humanitarian assistance has been made available inside Turkey since the Syrian crisis started. Through the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) €25.8 million have been disbursed, including €17 million to improve access to social services for off-camp refugees residing in Turkey and strengthen the technical capacity of the authorities to register them. While Commission humanitarian assistance responds immediately to emergencies, IPA is more suitable to meet medium-term needs and increase capacities of national legal, administrative and economic institutions. IcSP funding addresses the political and security impact of the crisis and responds to needs in a short-term perspective. Finally, the EU Regional Trust Fund is specifically designed to provide a regional response to this crisis and can rapidly and flexibly design both short-term and medium term operations.