PURPOSE: to present Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 3/2018 (extension of the refugee facility in Turkey).
CONTENT: this DAB provides for the financing in 2018 of the extension of the Refugee Facility in Turkey for an amount of EUR 500 million in commitment appropriations to the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance to the budget line 22 02 03 02 - Turkey - Support for economic, social and territorial development and related progressive alignment with the Union acquis.
This funding is needed in order to ensure a seamless follow up of successful Facility interventions funded under the first tranche, notably in order to be able to continue paying the salaries for over 5 000 teachers who so far have provided education to over 300 000 refugee children in Turkey.
As a reminder, the Commission Decision on the Facility for Refugees in Turkey was amended on 14 March 2018 in order to allocate an additional EUR 3 billion (a 'second tranche') to the Facility over the period 2018–2019.
The present draft amending budget proposes to add EUR 500 million in commitment appropriations as the EU contribution to the second tranche to the EU budget in 2018, in addition to the EUR 50 million financed from the existing Humanitarian Aid budgetary envelope in 2018. The remaining EU budget contribution to the Facility will be proposed under the 2019 draft budget.