EU OKs billions of euros to stem flood of refugees

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders endorsed plans to give Turkey another 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) over the next few years to provide fresh assistance to Syrian refugees in its territory and to help the country boost border controls.

“It’s about additional funds of 3 billion euros, then afterwards also funds for Lebanon and Jordan,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday.

Turkey reacted coolly to the plan, saying it’s a way for Europeans “to ensure the EU’s own peace and security.”

Well over 1 million migrants entered the EU in 2015, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The arrivals through Turkey overwhelmed facilities in the Greek islands, and sparked one of the EU’s biggestever political crises.

To persuade Turkey to stop people leaving its territory, the 27nation bloc offered the country 6 billion euros for Syrian refugees and the prospect of fasttrack EU membership talks and visafree travel in Europe for its citizens. Arrivals quickly dropped to a relative trickle, and the EU is eager to update the arrangement.

Membership talks are at a standstill, and Turkey has still not fulfilled several criteria to secure visafree travel, but the European Commission has handed over most of the funds and will pay the rest as contracts are completed. Separately, it is providing a further half a billion euros for refugees there this year.

Turkey is estimated to now host around 3.7 million refugees from the conflict in Syria. Lebanon and Jordan are also sheltering hundreds of thousands each. But Turkey is also a source of great concern for the EU, particularly disputed energy exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean that had heightened tensions with EU member states Greece and Cyprus.

In a working paper seen by the Associated Press, the commission said the support “has been highly effective and efficient.” It said that “in programming the actions under this package, will gradually move from humanitarian priorities to socioeconomic support and development. This will include funding for migration management and border control, notably at Turkey’s eastern border.”

It’s the first time that such EU funding has been earmarked for migration management and border controls. The earlier funds were spent directly on shelter and education projects for Syrian refugees in Turkey. None of that money went directly to the Turkish government.

Associated Press Syrian refugees gather June 9 at a camp set up by the Turkish Red Crescent in Hatay province. Turkey is estimated to now host around 3.7 million refugees from the conflict in Syria.