The European Commission paid more than €3.5 billion of pre-financing to Member States welcoming refugees from Ukraine. The payments came from the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) and are available now under the EU’s Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE). As part of NextGenerationEU, REACT-EU provides a top-up of €50.6 billion (in current prices) to the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes over the course of 2021 and 2022. REACT-EU entered into force on 24 December 2020 and can finance expenditure retroactively from 1 February 2020 until 31 December 2023.
The Commission has adopted the Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) allowing Member States and regions to provide emergency support to people fleeing from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. CARE is introducing the necessary flexibility in the 2014-2020 Cohesion policy rules to allow a swift reallocation of available funding to such emergency support. CARE will help Member States to provide emergency support covering the basic needs of people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These needs include access to services such as temporary accommodation, food and water supplies or medical care. CARE will also enhance the capacity of Member States to cater for the needs of refugees by supporting e.g. additional infrastructure equipment or staff necessary to cater for the needs of refugees. Moreover, Member States may use this funding to develop tailor-made solutions for the long-term integration of people with a migrant background through investments in housing, education, employment, health, social inclusion and care, or other social services. Cohesion policy support will complement the support from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and other funding sources.
You can find the detailed breakdown per country at the Commission’s website.
To learn more about current calls for proposals or Eurodiaconia’s funding events, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our our Projects and EU Funding Officer Giorgia Signoretto at giorgia.signoretto@eurodiaconia.org.