At the center of the robust EU aid response to the Syrian refugee crisis, the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian Crisis, supports up to 1,5 million Syrian refugees and their host communities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the Western Balkans.
Since its establishment in December 2014, an increasing share of the EU's non-humanitarian support to Syria's neighbouring countries is provided through the EU Trust Fund.
The Trust Fund reinforces the integrated EU aid response to the crisis and primarily addresses longer term educational, economic and social needs of Syrian refugees and overstretched host communities and their administrations in neighbouring countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The Trust Fund is a key instrument to deliver the EU's pledges for the crisis made at the London conference on Syria in 2016 and the Brussels conference in April 2017, and also underpins the special EU Compacts agreed with Jordan and Lebanon for assistance this protracted refugee crisis.
The Trust Fund's scope has been expanded to also cover support to IDP's in Iraq fleeing from the interlinked Syria/Iraq/Da'esh crisis, to provide flexibility to support affected countries also with hosting non-Syrian refugees, and to provide support in the Western Balkans to non-EU countries affected by the refugee crisis.