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EU body to scale up support to refugees in Turkey

Xinhua, May 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Steering Committee of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey met here on Thursday to agree the practicalities of how support to refugees will be accelerated in the months to come, with 1 billion euros (1.14 billion U.S. dollars) in commitments foreseen by the end of July.

The Steering Committee gathered representatives from EU member states and Turkey, under the chairmanship of the European Commission. The Committee took stock of the good progress under the Facility so far.

The committee agreed the Facility will focus on humanitarian assistance, migration management, education, health, municipal infrastructure and socio-economic support.

According to Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, the priority areas for Facility intervention have been agreed.

Close to 200 million euros of projects have been rolled out, and the EU and Turkey has a growing number of further projects in the pipeline.

"I am looking forward to reaching 1 billion euros in commitments by the end of July. The EU and Turkey are living up to their commitment to cooperate closely to improve the conditions for refugees in Turkey," it said.

According to the European Commission, the resources of the Facility come from the EU budget (1 billion euros) and from EU member states (2 billion euros) over 2016 and 2017. Endit