EU activates emergency mechanism, 3.5 billion euros for countries hosting Ukrainian refugees

2022-04-07 17:28:36Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

EU activates emergency mechanism, 3.5 billion euros for countries hosting

European Union countries that have been waiting, waiting and waiting in the future for Ukrainian refugees have received emergency first aid, as part of a 3.5 billion euro fund from joint union funds.

The sum is conceived as initial emergency financial assistance and other figures will follow. It will withdraw from REACT-U funds, which are EU reserves to support recovery and economic stability, a mechanism established after the pandemic erupted.

Member states with the largest number of arrivals, such as transit countries or final destination countries, will receive a greater share of this money.

The proposal makes it possible to ease pressure on the public budgets of member states, so that they can cope with the influx of refugees from Ukraine.

To this end, pre-financing from the 2021 installment of REACT-EU will increase from 11 percent to 15 percent for all member states and from 11 percent to 45 percent for those EU countries where the influx of refugees from Ukraine reached over 1 percent of their population at the end of the first month after the Russian invasion.

Countries that will receive 45 percent pre-financing are Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, which share a border with Ukraine, as well as Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia and Lithuania, which had accommodated a number of displaced persons equivalent to over 1 percent of their population by 23 March 2022.

 


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