The European Union had signed a refugee deal with the Ankara regime in March 2016. The deal led by Germany stipulated that some 3 million refugees who set out from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to reach Europe would be held in Turkey and the Erdogan regime would receive 6 billion Euros in return.

Brussels has given half of the payments to date, and in the EU summit in Varna last March, it was decided that the remaining 3 billion Euros would be given to Ankara as soon as possible. A third of the 3 billion Euros in the first package came from the EU budget, and the remaining two thirds were divided among member countries according to their budgets.

As the strongest economy in the EU, Germany had had to pay 500 million Euros with this calculation method. The EU Commission wanted to pay Ankara the remaining 3 billion Euros with the same plan, but under Germany’s lead, countries like France, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland had refused to do so saying that the Erdogan government hasn’t implemented the projects they did receive funding for.

GERMANY GIVES UP ON HAVING THE MONEY SUPERVISED

The Merkel government has since given up their insistence and accepted the EU’s payment plan. This very sudden decision by the Federal Government came before the 3-day visit to Germany Turkish President Erdogan is about to hold.

According to the newspaper Bild, the Federal Finance Ministry has sent a proposal to the Federal Parliament to pay 215 million Euros to Turkey as part of the refugee deal.

The Federal Parliament is expected to greenlight the payment today. The Berlin administration had previously been pressuring Brussels that “the second monetary package shouldn’t be given until the projects prepared with Turkey are implemented”.

AKP SIPHONS EU FUNDS

International media institution European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) carried out a study that showed the refugee deal wasn’t running smoothly as it’s been made out to look. The study showed that the money Turkey received to spend on refugees has gone missing and the projects the EU provided funds for haven’t been implemented.

Only half the projects to provide humanitarian aid for refugees have been implemented to date, and the ones that have been claimed to be implemented haven’t been inspected. The EU provided priority funds for hospitals and schools, which the Erdogan regime received in cash, but construction for these hasn’t started yet.

90 million Euros were given for hospitals in Kilis and Hatay, but neither construction has started yet. According to the EIC study, works for only 8 out of the 39 planned schools have started to date. On top of that, there are 15 million Euros allocated to the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges to support businesspeople and investors who took refuge in Turkey can’t be documented or accounted for.