Brussels, 24/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the night of Wednesday 23 to Thursday 24 October, the EU's heads of state and government gave assurances that substantial aid will be brought to the neighbouring countries of Syria, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, so that they might address the migration crisis. “More assistance will be offered in exchange for strengthened cooperation”, said European Council President Donald Tusk at the end of the informal extraordinary summit.
The heads of state and government thus want the European Union to mobilise at least a further €1 billion to respond to the requests of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - which are short of finance due to insufficient contributions - and for other humanitarian agencies coming to the aid of the refugees.
“None of us was aware that the international programmes were insufficiently financed, that the refugees are hungry in the camps, that their food rations have been reduced. And I hope that a signal will be sent to fill the shortfall in the WFP fund, for example”, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Brussels. With the €200 million that it will mobilise for the UNHCR and the WFP in 2015, in emergency aid and in civil protection (see other article), “the European Commission has made the first step. This is very important”, she added.
For this additional billion, Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann said that it is not yet clear how much will come from the EU budget and how much from national contributions. “The precise sharing between the EU and the member states will be defined in the coming days. Austria will take its part and will participate”, he said, stating that the financial support to the refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey should be strengthened.
The heads of state and government also want to support the neighbouring countries through a “substantial rise” in the trust fund for Syria - although no precise figures have yet been given. They want to increase the trust fund for Africa and to help the western Balkans manage the refugee flows, including through the pre-accession instruments (see other article).
In their final statement, the 28 EU member states thus called for the dialogue with Turkey to be strengthened “at all levels” - the first step in this direction being able to be made during the visit of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Brussels on 5 October. Erdogan is expected to meet the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission in order “to strengthen our cooperation for stemming and managing the flows of migrants”, the statement adopted at the summit says. Juncker will also meet Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. For France's President François Hollande, the possibility must be discussed with Turkey of the refugees working there. The establishment of safe zones in the north of Syria, where the Syrian refugees could be welcomed (an idea suggested by the Turkish government) will also be discussed, according to Hollande.
Syria: call for new diplomatic efforts. The heads of state and government called for “new efforts on the international level, under the aegis of the United Nations, to stop the war” in Syria, saying that the EU commits to assuming its responsibilities. Hollande said that to be credible, the EU should be a “stakeholder in a political solution in Syria, and work with all the countries concerned, the countries of the region, the United States, Russia, Iran, the Arab countries and the countries of the Gulf in order to continue what was undertaken in the Geneva conference”. He proposed a third Geneva conference. “All those who can contribute to finding a political solution in Syria must be put around the table (…) I call for a new conference to be able to allow all the countries that want peace to return to Syria to contribute to it”, he said. He again repeated that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was not part of the future of Syria.
According to Poland's Secretary of State for European Affairs Rafal Trzaskowski, the United Kingdom and France will soon present very concrete projects to contribute to the end of the Syrian crisis.
The final statement also refers to the Libyan crisis. The EU will take its share of responsibility for the formation of a national unity government, the statement says. A final text has just been presented for the approval of all the Libyan parties (see EUROPE 11394) (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Aminata Niang, with MB, JK, PH).