EU earmarks 21m euros for Syrian refugee response in Jordan

AMMAN – The EU on Wednesday announced it would finance new projects worth nearly 200 million euros to support Syrian refugees and “overstretched” host communities in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

Jordan’s share of the new aid package is around 21 million euros (around JD17 million) in urgent  support for a 140-million-euro programme financed together with EU member states to rehabilitate the overstretched water networks in northern Jordan, where most Syrian refugees reside, the European Commission said in a statement on its website.

A total of 165 million euros will be extended for projects in Turkey to support education, said the statement. 

Some 15 million euros was allocated for Lebanon to allow UNRWA to provide urgent education services and cash assistance to thousands of Palestinian refugees from Syria.

The commission said that the financial assistance to be extended by the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis would support around 1 million Syrian refugees in the three countries. 

The commission  said the package of projects was adopted at the fourth board meeting of the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian crisis, which brought together the European Commission, EU Member States, representatives of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as international financial institutions.

Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn was quoted by the statement as saying that the fund allows the delivery of rapid and effective support to those in need, adding that in just over one year, it has mobilised more than 730 million euros. 

“The funding focuses on the millions of out-of-camp refugees living in towns and cities in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. We want to bring all refugee children across the region into schools by next year. We will also invest in livelihoods, urgent municipal services and social cohesion for refugees and host communities,” Hahn said. 

At the “Supporting Syria and the Region” conference held in February of this year in London, the EU pledged over 3 billion euros in 2016 to assist the Syrian people and neighbouring countries affected by the refugee crisis.