“Some 10 percent of the EU budget, which amounts to roughly 15 billion euros, should be used for infrastructure development” said German minister Gerd Müller to the Hürriyet Daily News on May 23 on the sidelines of the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
 
Müller added an EU commissioner should also be appointed in order to distribute and manage this fund and to find a sustainable solution to the refugee crisis.
 
He said this money, which he referred to as the “refugee infrastructure fund”, should be allocated to develop infrastructure to those communities that host refugees, including Turkey and other states like Lebanon, Iraq “because that’s where the needs are” he said.
 
According to Hurriyet Daily News, a spokesperson for Müller’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the money collected in the fund should be used for the construction of infrastructure as “infrastructure gives them [refugees] prospective for the future”.
 
“Otherwise we are [giving] a bottle of water a day which is different than building a water pipeline” the spokesperson said.
 
Stating that the solution to the refugee crisis is not permitting all refugees to come to the EU, the spokesperson said Müller’s proposal worked with the aim of “going there where the refugees are” while also investing in that place.