The measure also bolsters ongoing efforts by member states to tackle the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the council’s letter, EU member states have already taken in more than two million people, mostly women and children, who are seeking refuge from Russia’s attack on Ukraine and in need of housing, food, health care, transportation and education.
The measure approved Wednesday will allow member states, especially those on the front lines of the crisis, to urgently redirect resources to support refugees while continuing work on post-pandemic recovery.
The regulation also offers additional flexibility in reallocating funding and extending 100% funding for coherence programs from the EU budget for one accounting year. This measure was originally introduced in 2020 to facilitate post-crisis recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Thanks to this measure, Member States will be able to use all unprogrammed resources for the period 2014-2020 much faster. They said they could also use the €10 billion tranche available in 2022 under one of the EU’s post-pandemic public investment programmes, REACT-EU.
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