EU reassures Turkey over its €3bn refugee package

The EU’s €3billion package to help refugees in Turkey will have been fully assigned to projects by the end of the year, the bloc’s envoy said Tuesday (6 June).

کد خبر: ۷۰۱۲۳۵

تاریخ: ۱۷ خرداد ۱۳۹۶ - ۰۹:۵۷

All the funds, part of a deal with Turkey to tackle Europe’s refugee crisis, will be fully assigned by the end of 2017, said Christian Berger, the EU ambassador to Turkey.

Berger was speaking during a visit to the southern Turkish city of Hatay, near the border with Syria.

"We will know exactly what we are doing with the three billion euros and we will have contracted almost the entire amount of money at the end of this year,” he told reporters.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has threatened to "blow the mind” of Europe by sending 15,000 refugees a month to EU territory, in an intensifying dispute with the bloc.

Berger was in Hatay for the handover of EU-financed medical equipment worth €220,000 to a medical centre serving 300 refugees daily, which also trains Syrian doctors and nurses.

In March last year, Brussels signed an agreement with Ankara to halt the flow of migrants coming to EU member states.

In return, the EU undertook to speed up talks on Turkey’s accession into the EU and to loosen visa restrictions for Turks.

But while the deal substantially reduced the flow of migrants into Europe, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly accused Brussels of failing to deliver the funds.

Turkey on Friday (27 January) threatened to scrap a migrant readmission deal with Athens after the Greek Supreme Court refused to return eight suspects allegedly linked to the failed July coup.

Berger said the issue was discussed during the 25 May meeting between Erdoğan, European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels.

As of May, €811 million has already been paid out, according to official EU figures.

Turkey is home to 2.9 million Syrian refugees, according to official interior ministry figures, with over 380,000 in Hatay province on the Syrian border.