EU ambassadors today approved €149.6 million of funding from the EU budget to support the most vulnerable of the approximately 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. This amount would finance the extension of one of the humanitarian programmes that support the livelihood of the refugees.
The purpose of the budget amendment is to continue providing support to refugees and host communities in Turkey, which is currently the country with the largest refugee population in the world. It would allow the EU to carry on with a programme providing multi-purpose cash assistance to refugees – the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN).
The ESSN is the biggest humanitarian programme in the EU’s history. It provides 1.8 million refugees in Turkey with monthly cash transfers to cover essential needs like rent, transport, bills, food and medicine.
Financing for the extension of this humanitarian support programme will come from the remaining margin for 2021 in the heading ‘Neighbourhood and the world’ of the EU’s multiannual financial framework.
After formal approval of the Council next week, this draft amending budget for 2021 will wait for the approval of the European Parliament.
