The statement was issued after the Head of the Ministry, Malgorzata Jarosinska-Gedi, attended the meeting of the Committee of Regions (CoR) Working Group on Ukraine with Poland, Elisa Ferreira, EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, and Apostoloch Sisikos. .
Gedi confirmed at the meeting that more than 2.5 million refugees have arrived in Poland so far from Ukraine.
The head of the Polish portfolio called for the creation of an “easy-to-use and flexible” financing instrument from the European Union as quickly as possible, which could “at least partially” cover the needs of billions of euros, he assured Gedi.
He assured Ljedi that these needs are certainly above the capabilities of the tools currently available. He explained that Poland has made extensive use of the current EU budget framework, so that it does not have a reserve that can be redirected to receive refugees.
The cost of hosting refugees in Poland is estimated at 2.2 billion euros in the first six months.
According to an announcement last week, based on a proposal by the European Commission, Poland could expect about 600 million euros in additional pre-financing to support refugee reception from the European Union Fund for European Union Regions (REACT-EU), which is part of the European recovery. The plan (NextGenerationEU). However, according to MFiPR, REACT-EU does not consist of new tools, but rather redeploys unused tools under the 2014-2020 EU framework.
On Wednesday, the Polish press quoted EU Budget and Administration Commissioner Johannes Hahn as saying that it would be “premature” to provide specific financial support, similar to the EU Facility established in 2016 with €6 billion in financial financing to support refugees in Turkey: countries Members of the European Union hosting Ukrainian refugees.
Han said the refugees are currently traveling to different countries.
When we see more places they settle, (…) we will decide how to help, especially in the worst affected countries.
Austrian Commissioner said.
Cover image source: Getty Images
