EU aid for refugees in Turkey worth billions of euros is not sustainable, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) released on Wednesday.
Since 2016, the EU has funnelled a special €6 billion ($6.4 billion) in humanitarian and development aid to Turkey as part of a pact to curb flows of people seeking to reach the bloc.
The ECA on Wednesday released a report into how the funds are being spent and whether the financed projects in the country, which currently hosts more than 4 million registered refugees out of a total population of around 87 million people, will be sustainable after EU funding runs out.
The Luxembourg-based authority found that, although refugees were supported with training programmes and business start-ups, there was no follow-up on how they later fared as employees or entrepreneurs.
In addition, new schools had been built for refugees, but the auditors had not received sufficient data from Turkish authorities to assess their impact.
The ECA also criticized the fact that the funded projects had progressed more slowly than planned. For example, development projects were delayed due to stricter building regulations, the coronavirus pandemic and rising inflation.
The earthquakes in Turkey in 2023 also had a significant impact on the projects.
"In a challenging political context, the EU's Facility for Refugees in Turkey provided relevant support for refugees and host communities," said Bettina Jakobsen, the ECA member who led the audit.
"But there could be more value for money and more impact, and it is far from certain what will happen with the projects in Türkiye after EU aid runs dry."
The authority recommended that the European Commission obtain educational data on refugees and host communities from the Turkish authorities in order to assess the program's success. It also called for improvement in the methods used to measure the projects' impact.