Ukraine: Council approves rapid allocation of cohesion resources to assist refugees

The Council today approved a legislative proposal to mobilize cohesion policy funding to help refugees fleeing Russian military aggression.

It will also reinforce Member States’ ongoing efforts to address the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The EU has already hosted more than two million people, mostly women and children, seeking refuge from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in need of accommodation, food, health care, transport and education. The measure approved today will allow Member States, especially those first affected by the crisis, to redeploy resources quickly to support refugees, while continuing the process of sustainable recovery.

Joel Giro, Minister for Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Territorial Structures, French Presidency
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This proposal for a Cohesion Action in Support of Refugees in Europe (CARE) amends two pieces of legislation to make exceptional and targeted changes for the period 2014-2020. The general legal framework for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and the European Support Fund for the Most Deprived (EAFRD).

It also introduces additional flexibility in the reallocation of funding and extends for one accounting year 100% funding from the EU budget’s cohesion programs, a measure originally introduced in 2020 to help with the post-Covid-19 recovery.

This means that Member States will be able to speed up the whole 2014-2020 the allocation of unallocated funding during the year. In addition, they can benefit from the € 10 billion tranche of funding in 2022 from the REACT-EU program, one of the largest post-pandemic EU public investment programs.

The proposal contains the following main elements:

• additional flexibility to transfer funds between programs under the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund to address migration issues resulting from Russia’s military aggression;
• a new flexibility to modify programs under the European Support Fund for the Most Deprived (EAFRD);
• the starting date for all measures eligible for CARE funding is set at 24 February 2022, the starting date for the Russian invasion;
• extended 100% funding from the EU budget 2021-2022 accounting year. In order to comply with the payment ceilings in 2022 and 2023, the total additional payments will not exceed EUR 5 billion in 2022 and EUR 1 billion in 2023.

Given that the impact of the influx of refugees on the population and the economy requires an urgent solution, the Council decided to approve the text of the proposal without amendment.

General information and next steps

On 8 March, the European Commission proposed a CARE regulation. The proposal aims to reduce the burden on national and regional budgets – especially in the eastern regions of the EU – caused by the unprecedented migratory pressure caused by Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. The proposal also takes into account the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the European Union as a whole.

EU leaders in the Versailles Declaration, adopted at their meeting on 10 and 11 March, called for “funds to be made available immediately through the swift adoption of a proposal for cohesion action in support of refugees in Europe (CARE) and through the REACT-EU initiative”.

The European Parliament is expected to use the urgency procedure to approve the proposal supported by the Council today. The legislation is expected to be adopted in early April and will enter into force immediately.

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