The Syrian crisis has become the world's worst humanitarian
disaster. The EU is the leading donor in the international response to
the Syrian crisis, with over €5 billion from the EU and
Member States collectively allocated in humanitarian and development
assistance since the start of the conflict until this year. At the
conference Supporting Syria and the Region that took place in London on 4
February, the EU and the Member States pledged for the year 2016 over
€3 billion. The EU's support goes both to Syrians in their country and
to refugees and their host communities in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan,
Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
The EU's relations with Syria
In
2011, the EU responded to the unacceptable violence used by the
military and security forces against peaceful protestors by suspending
its cooperation with the Syrian Government under the European
Neighbourhood Policy and gradually extending restrictive measures. This
policy sought to pressure the Syrian Government into ending violence and
to encourage a political solution to the conflict. From the very
outset, the EU has condemned human rights violations in Syria in the
strongest terms.
The EU's objective is to bring an end to the
conflict and enable the Syrian people to live in peace in their own
country. The latest EU position is stated in the Foreign Affairs Council
Conclusions of 12 October 2015. The EU is a full member and active
participant in the International Syria Support Group. It fully supports
the UN-led process, notably the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for
Syria.
Only a Syrian-led political process leading to a peaceful
and inclusive transition, based on the principles of the Geneva
communiqué of 30 June 2012 and in line with relevant UN Security Council
resolutions (notably 2254 (2015), will bring back stability to Syria.
European Commission funding...
- Additional funding following the pledge at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference
At
the conference Supporting Syria and the Region, the EU and the Member
States pledged for the year 2016 over €3 billion to assist the Syrian
people inside Syria as well as refugees and the communities hosting them
in the neighbouring countries
The pledge came on top of the €5
billion that the EU, as leading donor, has already committed in response
to the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
The European
commission pledge for the 2016 amounts to €1.115 billion. The
Commission was also able to give an indicative amount for 2017 which is
€1.275 billion, bringing the total pledge for the two years to €2.39
billion. These funds will mostly come from humanitarian assistance and
the European Neighbourhood Instrument.
- Overview
Since 2011, the European Commission’s support in response to the Syrian crisis has exceeded €2.6 billion. The Commission provides both immediate humanitarian assistance, and non-humanitarian aid, responding to medium-term needs.
In humanitarian assistance, the Commission has so far provided €1.037 billion for
life-saving emergency responses, food, water, sanitation, hygiene and
shelter to millions of Syrians inside Syria and in neighbouring
countries.
In non-humanitarian aid, the Commission has mobilised €1.6 billion, including:
- €961 million through the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI)- of which €381 million channelled via the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis (EUTF)-to address the medium term needs of the Syrian refugees living in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan (education, livelihoods, health, access to basic services);
- €180 million through Macro-financial Assistance (MFA) to Jordan to assist with the influx of Syrian refugees;
- €180 million through the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace for assistance programmes in opposition-controlled areas in Syria, mediation efforts, transitional justice preparation and measures to reduce tensions between refugees and host communities in the region, as well as to support the destruction of Syrian chemical stockpiles and chemical threat prevention;
- €249 million through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) to Turkey - of which €173 million are channelled via the EUTF;
- €26 million through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights;
- €26 million through the Development Co-operation Instrument (DCI)- of which €10 million are channelled via the EUTF
Since
its establishment in December 2014, most non-humanitarian aid for
Syria’s neighbouring countries is channelled through the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the "Madad Fund" (EUTF Madad)[1].
The EUTF aims to bring a more coherent and integrated EU response to
the crisis by merging various EU financial instruments and contributions
from Member States into one single flexible and quick mechanism. The
Trust Fund primarily addresses longer term resilience needs of Syrian
refugees in neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and
Iraq, as well as the hosting communities and their administrations. Its
mandate has just been extended to be able to operate also in the Western
Balkans, as far as it is concerned by the Syrian migrants flow. In
future the Trust Fund may start financing resilience activities inside
Syria and could become a funding tool for reconstruction, resettlement
and governance support following a political settlement of the crisis.
With recent pledges from 17 Member States- amounting to over €52
million- and contributions from various EU instruments, the Fund is now
reaching a total volume of €645 million. Additional funds will be committed in 2016 and beyond.
Inside Syria
Humanitarian assistance
Inside
Syria, thanks to lifesaving aid provided by the Commission, some 2
million people have gained access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene
items, 850 000 people have received food, 1 million people have received
non-food items and shelter, and 350 000 children have been covered by
child protection programmes.
The EU's humanitarian aid is
impartial and independent and goes to people in need regardless of
ethnic or religious considerations. The EU’s humanitarian aid is
channelled through the United Nations, International Organisations, and
international NGO partners.
Non-humanitarian assistance
Since
the on-set of the Syrian crisis, substantial non-humanitarian
assistance inside Syria has been provided by the Commission through the
European Neighbourhood Instrument, targeting in particular education,
livelihoods and civil society support.
Thanks to this financial
support, 2.3 million children have had improved access to education at
primary and secondary school level (over 4,000 schools reached).
Furthermore, more than 11,367 emergency job-opportunities for Syrians
have been created (including 4,000 job opportunities for women) and
numerous micro-grants for small-size businesses have been provided. More
than 85,000 Syrians inside Syria have benefitted from improved
community-based activities thanks to the strengthening of grassroots
civil society activities.
In addition, Commission funds from the
European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights have also supported
the protection of Human Rights Defenders as well as capacity-building of
Syrian journalists.
Assistance to neighbouring countries
Since
the beginning of the crisis, Syrians fled to neighbouring countries
which are hosting an unprecedented number of refugees. The European
Union is strongly supporting the Syrian refugees and their host
communities in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
Jordan
In Jordan
there are over 630 000 Syrian registered refugees, half of them
children. EU leaders have met Jordan representatives and visited the
country many times throughout the last five years. At the conference
Supporting Syria and the Region that took place in London on 4 February
the EU reiterated the solidarity to Jordan pledging an increased
support.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the European Commission has allocated more than €583.7 million in
assistance to refugees and vulnerable communities. This includes more
than €198 million from the humanitarian budget, €180 million from the
Macro Financial Assistance (MFA) Instrument, over €170 million from the
ENI/ European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, and more than
€30 million from the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace. The
Commission’s humanitarian aid has helped more than 350.000 Syrian
refugees in Jordan. With 83% of the refugees in Jordan living in urban
settings, the Commission supports the most vulnerable refugees through
cash assistance as it is considered the most cost-efficient and
dignified modality. Specific programmes support children’s and women’s
needs, since approximately 53% of the refugees are children and 23.5 %
women. Another priority in 2015 has been responding to the emergency
needs of asylum seekers at the border between Syria and Jordan where
today more than 16 000 people remain stranded, awaiting access to
Jordan.
This support comes on top of the over €500 million in
regular programmed bilateral cooperation for Jordan under the European
Neighbourhood policy, which brings the overall amount to €1.08 billion.
Lebanon
The
EU pays tribute to the outstanding efforts Lebanon is making since the
outset of the conflict. The country hosts more than 1.1 million refugees
representing 1/4 of the Lebanese population, which is the highest
per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide. At the Supporting Syria
and the Region Conference, the EU Commission pledge increased support
investing in resilience and sustainability of Lebanon.
For Lebanon, since the beginning of the crisis, the European Commission has allocated €552.1 million.
This includes more than €269 million in humanitarian aid and €283
million for development/stabilisation support, mainly financed by the
ENI/European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (close to €250
million) and Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (over €30
million) to address longer term resilience needs of affected civilians,
both refugees and Lebanese host communities. In Lebanon, through its
partners, the EU’s humanitarian aid reaches around 665.000 people.
The Commission's non-humanitarian aid
is addressing both refugees and host communities’ needs. The main part
is going to the education sector but we are also dealing with health,
livelihoods and local infrastructures (water, waste water, solid waste
management).
This support comes on top of €219 million in regular
programmed bilateral cooperation for Lebanon under the European
Neighbourhood Policy, which bring the overall support to €771 million.
This shows that the EU was able to mobilise within a short period a
200% increase of funding for Lebanon to effectively address the
country's huge needs resulting from the refugee crisis.
Turkey
In Turkey there are over 2.5 million registered Syrian refugees, making Turkey the largest host of refugees in the world.
The
total funding provided by the EU to Turkey in response to the Syria
Crisis, including humanitarian aid as well as longer-term assistance,
amounts to €352 million. In humanitarian aid, the
European Commission has contributed €71 million since 2011 to primarily
assist Syrian refugees but also Iraqi refugees and other populations of
concern in Turkey. EU humanitarian aid is funding the provisions of
food, non-food items (including winterization assistance), health
assistance and protection through humanitarian partners. Altogether, the
Commission is in Turkey currently providing food assistance to about
230,000 people and health assistance to about 130,000 people. Through
the EU Children of Peace initiative, the Commission has funded emergency
education, which provides Syrian children living in Turkey with access
to schools.
Moreover, in November 2015, the EU announced that it is setting up a legal framework – a Refugee Facility for Turkey – with €3 billion to
deliver efficient and complementary support to Syrian refugees and host
communities in Turkey. Priority will be given to actions providing
immediate humanitarian, development and other assistance to refugees and
host communities, national and local authorities in managing and
addressing the consequences of the inflows of refugees.
Iraq
Closely
linked to the Syria crisis is the one in Iraq. The Iraq crisis is a
Level 3 emergency with 10 million people in need of humanitarian aid, in
a country of 36 million. This includes 3.2 million Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) and 250 000 refugees from Syria.
The European
Commission's humanitarian budget for Iraq has substantially grown in
2015, responding to increasing needs and reaching the total of €104.65 million.
The EU provides protection and relief to both Iraqi displaced persons
and Syrian refugees, inside and outside camps in Iraq, as well as other
vulnerable populations affected by the conflict. Funding ensures food
assistance, basic health care, water and sanitation, protection, shelter
and the distribution of essential household items.
[1] http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/neighbourhood/countries/syria/madad/index_en.htm
