Turkey expects billions for migrant deal

Turkey assumes that the European Union will simply pay the remainder of the € 3 billion that Europe pledged under a refugee deal before the end of the year.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Cavusoglu announced this to the budget committee of the Turkish Parliament on Thursday.

The EU has pledged Turkey financial support for the reception of refugees from Syria. The European Commission announced on Wednesday that a destination was found for 2.9 out of 3 billion euros for the period 2016-2017. Contracts have been signed for 55 projects worth almost 1.8 billion. The total amount that has been paid up to now is 908 million.

The money is intended to improve the living conditions of the millions of refugees in Turkey and is spent on education, health, food, shelter, water supply, waste disposal and sanitation.

For the subsequent period, another EUR 3 billion has indeed been pledged. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month that 'we have to keep our promise'.