European Court of Auditors gives a mixed assessment of Refugee Facility in Turkey

While the Refugee Facility in Turkey has enabled “a rapid response in a difficult context”, the use of resources has not always been optimal, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors published on Tuesday 13 November 2018. 

This report assesses the use of the first tranche of the budget of this instrument to support refugees and their Turkish host community. This first tranche corresponds to 3 billion euros disbursed over the 2016-2017 period. 

According to the Commission, this instrument, set up during a period of major influxes, had been very effective (see EUROPE 11981), allowing 500,000 children to gain access to education and 1.2 million refugees to receive monthly cash transfers. 

However, Turkey had repeatedly indicated that the promised amount had not been fully made available and that the aid was being released too slowly. 

According to the Court of Auditors, the disagreements between the Commission and Turkey have created dysfunctions in the way in which the needs of refugees are met, though clearly identified in advance by the Commission. In particular, the Court regrets the Turkish refusal to grant the Commission access to beneficiary data for the two cash aid projects. 

While all the humanitarian projects audited have provided useful assistance to refugees, half of these projects have not yet achieved their planned outputs and nine out of ten projects have had to be extended, according to the auditors. 

The report also points to the complexity and excessive number of instruments used by the Commission, the lack of cost control and inconsistencies in cash flow. 

The third tranche of the Turkey Refugee Facility is one of the points of disagreement between the European Parliament and the Council for the 2019 budget. Parliament thus wishes for greater participation by the Member States and a contribution from the European budget limited to 1 billion euros (see EUROPE 12124). 

Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world, with nearly 4 million people, including some 3.5 million Syrians, of whom about 94% live outside the refugee camps. (Original version in French by Mathieu Solal)