EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

Adoption of the Commission Decision on the Facility for Refugees in Turkey amending Commission Decision C(2015) 9500 as regards the contribution to the Facility for Refugees in Turkey

The Facility for Refugees in Turkey was set up in 2015 as a powerful demonstration of the EU’s commitment to supporting refugees in Turkey. It combined both humanitarian and non-humanitarian support to assist Turkey in its efforts to host refugees. The first tranche of funding under the Facility amounted to EUR 3 billion for 2016 and 2017.

The mobilisation of the first tranche of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey has been a success. The full operational envelope of the EUR 3 billion has been programmed, committed and contracted in the space of 21 months since the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016. The 2nd Annual Report on the Facility (1) includes detailed information on the achievements and the implementation of a total of 72 projects. The report confirms tangible results. This includes the delivery of monthly income support to almost 1.2 million of the most vulnerable refugees with monthly cash transfers under the Emergency Social Safety Net; the provision of Turkish language training to 312 000 refugee children and educational materials to 500 000 students; and primary health care consultations for almost 764 000 refugees and the vaccination of more than 217 000 Syrian refugee infants. The governance of the Facility also allowed a partnership approach between the EU and the Member States, and joint governance would not be possible with funding coming exclusively from the EU budget.

The EU has a strong interest in continuing what has proved to work well. This Commission Decision has therefore been prepared with the aim of ensuring that the valuable work of the Facility can continue, as set out in the EU-Turkey Statement.

The EU-Turkey Statement confirmed that the EU will mobilise an additional EUR 3 billion for the Facility by end-2018 if the relevant conditions were met. With a view to ensuring the continuity of Facility projects and uninterrupted support to refugees, a decision on additional funding is therefore required. Therefore, the Commission is adopting a decision on a second allocation of EUR 3 billion for the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The 2016 and 2017 budget mobilised under the Facility was made up of EUR 1 billion from the EU budget and EUR 2 billion from Member States contributions as external assigned revenue. It is proposed to continue this arrangement for 2018 and 2019. This distribution ensures that sufficient margins remain in the EU budget to deal with emergencies and unexpected crises until the end of the current multi-annual financial framework, in particular in the area of migration.

The mobilisation of contributions from Member States to the Facility for 2016 and 2017 followed a Common Understanding establishing a governance and conditionality framework for the Refugee Facility for Turkey by the Commission and the Representatives of the Governments of the 28 Member States (2). The governance structure of the Facility, the core of which is a committee in which all Member States vote and Turkey participates in an advisory capacity, has proven very effective. Were the EU budget alone to contribute to the second tranche, standard EU rules would apply and the Member States would be excluded from the governance of the Facility. The Commission invites the Member States to set up a similar arrangement in respect of the years 2018 and 2019, with individual financial contributions from Member States to be included in the Union’s budget as external assigned revenue, as was the case for the first tranche.

(1)  Commission Communication COM(2018) 91 of 13 March 2018.

(2)  Common Understanding establishing a governance and conditionality framework for the Refugee Facility for Turkey by the Commission and the Representatives of the Governments of the 28 Member States of 5 February 2016.