European Commission to Propose Additional $1.9Bln to Ease Refugee Crisis

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to allocate an additional 1.7 billion euro ($1.9 billion) to fund EU measures addressing the current refugee crisis, European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva said.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — Kristalina Georgieva stated that this sum almost doubles the financing the European Commission had at its disposal to ease the refugee crisis.

"Today we have taken a decision to propose an additional 1.7 billion euros," Georgieva told journalists.

According to Georgieva, the funds will be used to improve the facilities and capacity of the states mostly affected by refugee arrivals, as well as distributing aid to refugees on the borders of the European Union.

Earlier, the European Commission reported that over 500,000 migrants and refugees had arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015.