The FINANCIAL — The European Commission signed contracts worth a total of €270 million for construction and equipping of school buildings for Syrian refugee children and their host communities in Turkey.
Under these contracts, some 100 schools are to be built and equipped, benefitting over 70,000 Syrian refugee children primarily in Turkey’s Southern and South-Eastern provinces. The EU funding will also help the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE) to manage educational infrastructure, according to European Commission.
Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations said: “The EU continues to deliver on its firm commitment to support Syrian refugees living in Turkey. With the contracts signed today worth €270 million, we will further improve the educational infrastructure on the ground, enabling over 70,000 Syrian refugee children to have access to schooling across the country. We look forward to signing additional contracts in the areas of health, socio-economic support and municipal infrastructure in the near future, to give refugee kids and their families a better perspective in the country”.
The Commission’s support is implemented through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the World Bank. The funding comes from the EU’s Facility for Refugees in Turkey (€200 million as part of the €1.4 billion of the Special Measure adopted by the Commission at the end of July) and the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis (€70 million)
Since March this year, the EU has mobilised €2.2 billion out of the total budget of €3 billion under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The Facility supports the implementation of both the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan and the EU-Turkey Statement and is designed to address the most critical needs of Syrian refugees and host communities in Turkey today.
