EU countries to receive $3.8B additional funds to host Ukrainian refugees

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – EU countries will receive an additional €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion) support from the EU budget to host Ukrainian refugees this year.

The Council of the European Union approved on Tuesday a new legislative act for the funding.

The budgetary modification increases the amount that EU countries can receive as pre-financing from post-pandemic recovery programs, the Council said in a statement.

“These changes seek to alleviate the pressure on member states’ public budgets so that they can better deal with the inflow of refugees,” the statement added.

The fund will be distributed based on the number of Ukrainian refugees the country hosts.

In principle, the pre-financing will increase the total post-pandemic fund the country was entitled to during the 2021-2027 budgetary cycle from 11% to 15%.

Those welcoming more refugees than 1% of their population in the first month of the crisis can claim 45% of the total fund.

Countries are also allowed to demand the option of a unit cost per person calculated on the basic needs of Ukrainian refugees.

The EU has allocated €1 billion (about $1.09 billion) in military support, €500 million (about $544 million) in humanitarian aid to Ukrainians, and imposed five sets of sanctions on Moscow since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24.

According to the European Commission’s figures, the European Union hosts over 4 million Ukrainian refugees.