EU leaders are expected to pledge on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 March to “intensify” their efforts to welcome refugees from Ukraine in a spirit of “unity and solidarity”, according to draft conclusions dated 21 March.
The Member States will also ask the European Commission to study how to ensure the necessary funds for Member States to carry out these reception missions and to ensure that these funds can be used quickly, as the question of financing this reception is a real “issue” for the EU27, a diplomatic source acknowledged.
Plans will also have to be drawn up by the European Commission for the medium and long term to meet the needs of the Member States, the draft also states.
On 23 March, the European Commission had already announced an extension of €3.4 billion under the REACT-EU programme (see other news), but some countries feel that there is a lack of support and that funds other than cohesion funds should be used to manage the reception.
On Monday 28 March, the interior ministers of the EU and the Schengen countries will discuss these needs in greater detail. Themes of the meeting will include the coordination of reception efforts and the particular situation of Moldova, as well as security issues in the EU.
Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) discussed this agenda on Tuesday 22 March, and one of the items for discussion on Monday 28 March will be voluntary commitments to take in and transfer refugees currently in Moldova.
Several Member States have already volunteered, including Austria, which this week took in some of the 2,000 Ukrainian refugees it has pledged to take in from Moldova, a move welcomed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Member States are therefore expected to be invited to join this transfer and to offer their assistance.
The meeting will also take stock of the financial and material needs of Member States at a time when more than 3.5 million people have already arrived in the EU, including over 2 million in Poland.
Ministers will ask for a detailed overview of the funds available as there is greater financial need. They will also take stock of refugee transfers in the EU, with transfers being organised spontaneously to date. This will be done in order to make the best possible estimate of the need for reception capacity. The European Commission is preparing an index to give a more accurate picture of the reception load.
The meeting will also have a security component. This is primarily a question of Member States remaining alert to possible security threats or threats of organised crime around these population transfers, a source explained, so that such groups do not take advantage of the situation. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with the editorial staff)