“I am ready to mobilise every tool at my disposal to bring today’s commitments into reality,” Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica, who is in charge of the file, said in a statement.
The new money comes on top of a €500 million financial package currently being negotiated by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union.
It’s the latest in a series of similar deals the EU has struck with countries in its eastern and southern neighborhoods as the bloc tries to shore up their economies and pave the way for deporting migrants back to their home countries.
In 2024, von der Leyen traveled to Egypt with EU leaders including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to sign a €7.4 billion investment deal with Cairo that also aimed to help the country secure its borders and manage migrants.
That came after €1 billion deals that Brussels signed with Lebanon and Tunisia, respectively.
In December, the EU signed a €1 billion deal with Turkey that topped up more than €10 billion it has given to Ankara in recent years to handle migrants.
In October, EU leaders led by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pressed the Commission to facilitate deportations of migrants who have been denied the right to remain legally in Europe back to third countries. An important part of the EU’s policy is ensuring that countries will accept deportations — hence the intensive outreach to countries in the region, including Syria.
