The European Commission announced €50 million humanitarian additional funding in order to help people in Syria. The release of the funds will begin as soon as the European Parliament and the Council have approved the decision. This will bring the Commission's total contribution to €119 million.

The allocation of €50 million humanitarian funding to help Syrian civilians was announced by the European Commission on 7 of August. It would bring to €200 million the assistance from the European Commission and Member States - roughly half of all international humanitarian aid to the crisis. The funding will be channelled through the European Commission's humanitarian partners including UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent family and non-governmental organisations. Prior to this decision, in June 2012, the European Commission also announced the allocation of €23 million in addition to the humanitarian assistance already provided by the Commission to help Syrian population.

This contribution from the EU will cover health care for the wounded or those in need of emergency treatment, basic healthcare services, shelter, food, water, sanitation and household items for both the displaced within Syria and the refugees abroad. The target beneficiaries include more than 1.5 million people in Syria and a large proportion of the almost 200,000 Syrians who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Assistance will also be provided to some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and another 87,000 Iraqi refugees who live in Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has declared the conflict in Syria a "civil war". An estimated 2.5 million people are affected by the on-going violence. The UN estimates that 1,200,000 have been internally displaced in Syria and this number is growing daily. The Commission is in daily contact with its humanitarian partners and is coordinating its humanitarian activities with EU Member States and all other significant donors.