On 3 February 2016, the 28 member states agreed on how to finance the €3 billion EU refugee facility for Turkey. This will allow the EU to deliver additional humanitarian assistance to refugees in Turkey and their host communities. The help is mainly focused on meeting immediate needs by providing food, health services and education.

“We are working continuously to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. The agreements between the EU and Turkey are a vital part of this. They aim at targeting human traffickers and launching projects which will help give those in and around the refugee camps the hope of a better future. Europe is following up on its decision to make 3 billion euro available for the Turkey Refugee Facility and we will continue to work hard with our Turkish partners to turn this into concrete results”, said Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, which is currently holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU.

This agreement puts into practice the commitment made by the EU at its summit with Turkey on 29 November 2015 to provide €3 billion additional resources to assist Turkey in addressing the immediate humanitarian and development needs of refugees and their host communities. €1 billion of this will be financed from the EU budget and the remaining €2 billion by contributions from the member states according to their share in EU GNI.

The facility will include a governance and conditionality framework. Its respect is an essential element for the execution of assistance actions.

The distribution of member states' contributions is set out in the following table and graphic:

Member state National contribution for the Turkey Refugee Facility [1][2] (€ million) Belgium 57.6 Bulgaria 5.9 Czech Republic 20.4 Denmark 38.4 Germany 427.5 Estonia 2.8 Ireland 22.9 Greece 25.1 Spain 152.8 France 309.2 Croatia 5.9 Italy 224.9 Latvia 3.5 Lithuania 5.2 Luxembourg 4.3 Hungary 14.7 Malta 1.1 Netherlands 93.9 Austria 45.6 Poland 57.0 Portugal 24.4 Romania 21.6 Slovenia 5.2 Slovak Republic 10.5 Finland 28.4 Sweden 61.3 United Kingdom 327.6 TOTAL 2000.0 [3]

[1] Contributions made by member states could be adjusted downwards in 2017 according to the final contribution from the EU budget, without prejudice to the total amount planned for the instrument and without prejudice to the prerogatives of the budgetary authority.

[2] National contributions for the Facility will not be taken into account for the calculation of a member state's deficit under the Stability and Growth Pact.

[3] A contribution from Cyprus in the amount of € 2.3 million will be made to the EU budget for Jordan and Lebanon.

Next steps

The agreement allows the Commission to adapt its decision establishing the Refugee Facility for Turkey and to prepare concrete measures for providing assistance to refugees in Turkey from early 2016.