Brussels, 01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The contributions of the member state to the EU/Turkey action plan aiming to stem the flow of migrants into the European Union will have no impact on the national public deficits within the meaning of the Stability and Growth Pact.
This provision has been laid down in a footnote to the document instituting the trust fund for Turkey, which was put to the member states in December, European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas announced on Monday 1 February.
In Berlin on Friday 29 January, the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, said that he was awaiting clarifications from the European institution before Italy would give its approval to the financing details of the EU/Turkey action plan, which will have an envelope of €3 billion (see EUROPE 11479). Rome takes the view that the Community budget should fully bear the funding of the action plan (see EUROPE 11469).
According to the Turkish press agency Dogan, the Turkish Minister for European Affairs, Volkan Bozkir, said that he had had assurances from the Italian Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, that Turkey would be in receipt of the envelope of €3 billion in European aid by the end of February. He said that the measures taken by Ankara to prevent migrants from flooding into the EU, such as a visa requirement for Syrians entering Turkey by air or sea and the granting of work permits to Syrian refugees on Turkish soil, were producing results.
Budgets 2016. Between now and the spring, the Commission reiterated, it will carry out case-by-case and ex-post assessments of the national public expenditure incurred by the member states for the hosting and integration of refugees. In November, it expressed its willingness to activate the flexibility clauses of the Pact to prevent this expenditure from having an unfavourable impact on the national deficits (see EUROPE 11432). Four countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland and Italy) referred to the impact of hosting refugees on their public finances in their draft national budgets for 2016. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)