The Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, listened to the repeated requests from Member States, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, for additional aid and support and confirmed that the European Commission was considering solutions to respond to the probable prolongation of the war in Ukraine, during a press briefing at the end of the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) on Monday 14 March.
Responding to EUROPE, the commissioner expects a war “that will go on”, with the number of Ukrainian refugees growing - at the opening of the round table, he cited the number of potential Ukrainian refugees at 10 million , or a quarter of the country’s total population.
“And so, I think the Commission absolutely has to - and I think it is doing so - think about aid and support to Member States, especially those that are carrying a very heavy burden”, the Commissioner said, indicating that the CARE initiative was a first step. “We are thinking about what measures may become necessary in the relatively near future”.
The CARE initiative, which aims to make funds available in the context of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), is inspired by the CRII initiatives formulated in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to support local and regional authorities (see EUROPE 12680/5). Just as the CRII initiative was followed very quickly by a CRII+ initiative, some are expecting and demanding a follow-up, CARE+. It is difficult to know exactly how much is left in unspent funds in the 2014-2020 MFF, we were told.
In contrast, under the REACT-EU initiative, which is part of the wider Recovery and Resilience Plan, the European Commission has a clearer picture: around €9 billion remains. The problem is that Member States, such as the Baltic States, which have been the most disciplined in absorbing funds, no longer have the funds to redirect them towards the reception of refugees. This leads to a paradoxical situation where it is the most efficient Member States that are penalised.
A request from Central and Eastern European Member States
In the morning, during the update on the reception of refugees, added a few days ago by the French Presidency of the EU Council, the Eastern and Central European Member States, especially those in the front line of refugee reception, mentioned a major challenge in receiving the refugees who are arriving in numbers. All of them, be it Poland, the Baltic States, Romania or the Czech Republic, insisted on the need both to welcome refugees - more than 80% of whom are women and children, and therefore particularly vulnerable - by providing them with health care, housing, food aid, education for their children, etc., and to respond to the challenges of integrating them into the labour market in a sustainable way.
All these Member States called for more flexibility and new financial instruments to support the reception and integration of refugees, building on the initiatives taken during the pandemic. In the West, the demand for additional measures seemed less explicit, with the exception of Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg. Germany insisted on the use of existing funds, especially under the European Social Fund (ESF).
Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia signed a joint declaration which they put forward during the EPSCO Council and in which they invite the Commission to support all efforts with “special measures”.
For the joint statement: https://aeur.eu/f/rn (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)