EU unveils €1-billion aid package for Lebanon in bid to curb refugee flows
European Commission President Ur‐ sula von der Leyen announced the move on Thursday morning following a meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Cypri‐ ot President Nikos Christodoulides in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
The financial envelope, made up entirely of grants and to be dispersed by 2027, will help Lebanon strengthen basic services such as education, so‐ cial protection and health, and spur economic reforms in the crisis-strick‐ en country, von der Leyen said.
But some three quarters of the cash - a total of €736 million - will be specifically dedicated to helping Lebanon grapple with the challenges it faces in welcoming Syrian refugees.
"We understand the challenges that Lebanon faces with hosting Syri‐ an refugees and other displaced per‐ sons. It is vital to ensure the wellbeing of host communities and Syrian refugees," von der Leyen said.
The Commission chief also vowed to "look at how to make the EU's as‐ sistance more effective," including fa‐ cilitating a "more structured ap‐ proach to voluntary returns" of dis‐ placed Syrians in cooperation with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
It comes a er EU leaders backed deeper engagement with Beirut last month to help safeguard it from the repercussions of the conflict in the Middle East, and a er Cyprus raised the alarm over a sharp peak in the number of Syrian refugees arriving from Lebanon.
It also follows a string of agree‐ ments signed over the last year be‐ tween Brussels and African countries in a bid to stem migration into Eu‐ rope.
A deepening economic crisis and fragile government make Lebanon particularly vulnerable to the instabil‐ ity gripping the region in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
The country is home to some 210,000 Palestinian and 1.5 million Syrian refugees, prompting fears re‐ gional instability could unleash a wave of migrants towards Europe via the island of Cyprus.
Cash to stem refugee flows
In early April, Cyprus announced it would temporarily halt the processing of asylum applications due to a surge in arrivals of Syrian refugees transit‐ ing through Lebanon and attempting to reach the island, which lies just 260 km off the Lebanese coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
Over 1,000 people arrived in Cyprus by boats from Lebanon during the first two weeks of April, leaving refugee and reception centres on the island overloaded.
"The problems seen on the Cypri‐ ot border is only one example of what could happen if this problem is not addressed," Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati acknowl‐ edged on Thursday, thanking Cyprus' President Christodoulides for broker‐ ing the agreement.
Hailing the announcement as "historic", Christodoulides said that the financial envelope would address a situation that is "not sustainable" for either Lebanon, Cyprus or the Eu‐ ropean Union.
"While we commend the Lebanese government for hosting a large num‐ ber of Syrian refugees for more than 12 years, we are also fully cognisant of the enormous pressure that this creates to your economy and to your society," Christodoulides said.
He backed von der Leyen's pro‐ posal of intensifying work with part‐ ners such as UNHCR on voluntary re‐ turns, where refugees who want to re‐ turn to their home countries - even if the UN agency considers it unsafe for them - are supported to do so.
Christodoulides also went further by calling for the status of some re‐ gions of Syria to be "re-examined" as safe areas to facilitate the return of migrants and refugees, a proposal he tabled at last month's summit meet‐ ing of EU leaders.
Syria, which has been under the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-As‐ sad for more than two decades, has been designated an unsafe country since the civil war erupted in 2011. But refugee host countries such as Turkey and Lebanon have been push‐ ing for the mass return of Syrian refugees to the country.
A European Commission spokesperson confirmed that the EU has followed the lead of the UNHCR in their approach to safe zones in Syria, and that Brussels is "embarking now on discussions to see how to ap‐ proach this issue in the upcoming pe‐ riod."
Von der Leyen also floated a work‐ ing arrangement between Lebanon and the EU's border agency, Frontex, "particularly on information ex‐ change and situational awareness." The agency currently has such arrangements in place with 19 part‐ ner countries.
Security of Lebanon 'at stake'
Both Christodoulides and von der Leyen also acknowledged the threat posed by the war between Israel and Hamas to Lebanon's security.
The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah is present in the country and has continuously exchanged fire across Lebanon's southern border with Israel since the outbreak of the war last October.
Hezbollah also took part in Tehran’s unprecedented aerial attack on Israel last month.
"We are deeply concerned about the volatile situation in South Lebanon. What is at stake is the secu‐ rity of both Lebanon and Israel. The two cannot be disassociated," von der Leyen said.
Von der Leyen asked for a UN res‐ olution calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from the Blue Line, the bor‐ der demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, to be respected.